Njörðr has been the subject of an amount of scholarly discourse and theory, often connecting him with the figure of the much earlier attested Germanic goddess Nerthus, the hero Hadingus, and theorizing on his formerly more prominent place in Norse paganism due to the appearance of his name in numerous place names. Njörðr is sometimes modernly anglicized as Njord, Njoerd, or Njorth.

The name Njörðr corresponds to that of the older Germanic fertility goddess Nerthus, and both derive from the Proto-Germanic*Nerþuz. The original meaning of the name is contested, but it may be related to the Irish word nert which means "force" and "power". It has been suggested that the change of sex from the female Nerthus to the male Njörðr is due to the fact that feminine nouns with u-stems disappeared early in Germanic language while the masculine nouns with u-stems prevailed. However, other scholars hold the change to be based not on grammatical gender but on the evolution of religious beliefs; that *Nerþuz and Njörðr appear as different genders because they are to be considered separate beings.[1] The name Njörðr may be related to the name of the Norse goddess Njörun.[2]

Njörðr's name appears in various place names in Scandinavia, such as Nærdhæwi (now Nalavi, Närke), Njærdhavi (now Mjärdevi, Linköping; both using the religious term vé), Nærdhælunda (now Närlunda, Helsingborg), Nierdhatunum (now Närtuna, Uppland) in Sweden,[1]Njarðvík in southwest Iceland, Njarðarlög and Njarðey (now Nærøy) in Norway.[3] Njörðr's name appears in a word for sponge; Njarðarvöttr (Old Norse "Njörðr's glove"). Additionally, in Old Icelandic translations of Classical mythology the Roman god Saturn's name is glossed as "Njörðr."[3]

Njörðr, Skaði, and Freyr as depicted in The Lovesickness of Frey (1908) by W. G. Collingwood

Njörðr is described as a future survivor of Ragnarök in stanza 39 of the poem Vafþrúðnismál. In the poem, the god Odin, disguised as "Gagnráðr" faces off with the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir in a battle of wits. While Odin states that Vafþrúðnir knows all the fates of the gods, Odin asks Vafþrúðnir "from where Njörðr came to the sons of the Æsir," that Njörðr rules over quite a lot of temples and hörgrs (a type of Germanic altar), and further adds that Njörðr was not raised among the Æsir. In response, Vafþrúðnir says:

In stanza 16 of the poem Grímnismál, Njörðr is described as having a hall in Nóatún made for himself. The stanza describes Njörðr as a "prince of men," that he is "lacking in malice," and that he "rules over the "high-timbered temple."[5] In stanza 43, the creation of the god Freyr's ship Skíðblaðnir is recounted, and Freyr is cited as the son of Njörðr.[6] In the prose introduction to the poem Skírnismál, Freyr is mentioned as the son of Njörðr, and stanza 2 cites the goddess Skaði as the mother of Freyr.[7] Further in the poem, Njörðr is again mentioned as the father of Freyr in stanzas 38, 39, and 41.[8]

Loki responds in the stanza 34, stating that "from here you were sent east as hostage to the gods" (a reference to the Æsir-Vanir War) and that "the daughters of Hymir used you as a pisspot, and pissed in your mouth."[9] In stanza 35, Njörðr responds that:

Loki tells Njörðr to "stop" and "keep some moderation," and that he "won't keep it a secret any longer" that Njörðr's son Freyr was produced with his unnamed sister, "though you'd expect him to be worse than he is." The god Tyr then interjects and the flyting continues in turn.[9]

Njörðr is referenced in stanza 22 of the poem Þrymskviða, where he is referred to as the father of the goddess Freyja. In the poem, the jötunn Þrymr mistakenly thinks that he will be receiving the goddess Freyja as his bride, and while telling his fellow jötunn to spread straw on the benches in preparation for the arrival of Freyja, he refers to her as the daughter of Njörðr of Nóatún.[10] Towards the end of the poem Sólarljóð, Njörðr is cited as having nine daughters. Two of the names of these daughters are given; the eldest Ráðveig and the youngest Kreppvör.[11]

In the Prose Edda, Njörðr is introduced in chapter 23 of the book Gylfaginning. In this chapter, Njörðr is described by the enthroned figure of High as living in the heavens at Nóatún, but also as ruling over the movement of the winds, having the ability to calm both sea and fire, and that he is to be invoked in seafaring and fishing. High continues that Njörðr is very wealthy and prosperous, and that he can also grant wealth in land and valuables to those who request his aid. Njörðr originates from Vanaheimr and is devoid of Æsir stock, and he is described as having been traded with Hœnir in hostage exchange with between the Æsir and Vanir.[12]

High further states that Njörðr's wife is Skaði, that she is the daughter of the jötunn Þjazi, and recounts a tale involving the two. High recalls that Skaði wanted to live in the home once owned by her father called Þrymheimr ("Thunder Home"). However, Njörðr wanted to live nearer to the sea. Subsequently, the two made an agreement that they would spend nine nights in Þrymheimr and then next three nights in Nóatún (or nine winters in Þrymheimr and another nine in Nóatún according to the Codex Regius manuscript[13]). However, when Njörðr returned from the mountains to Nóatún, he says:

High states that afterward Skaði went back up to the mountains to Þrymheimr and recites a stanza where Skaði skis around, hunts animals with a bow, and lives in her fathers old house.[13] Chapter 24 begins, which describes Njörðr as the father of two beautiful and powerful children: Freyr and Freyja.[14] In chapter 37, after Freyr has spotted the beautiful jötunn Gerðr, he becomes overcome with sorrow, and refuses to sleep, drink, or talk. Njörðr then sends for Skírnir to find out who he seems to be so angry at, and, not looking forward to being treated roughly, Skírnir reluctantly goes to Freyr.[15]

Njörðr is introduced in Skáldskaparmál within a list of 12 Æsir attending a banquet held for Ægir.[16] Further in Skáldskaparmál, the skaldic god Bragi recounds the death of Skaði's father Þjazi by the Æsir. As one of the three acts of reparation performed by the Æsir for Þjazi's death, Skaði was allowed by the Æsir to choose a husband from amongst them, but given the stipulation that she may not see any part of them but their feet when making the selection. Expecting to choose the god Baldr by the beauty of the feet she selects, Skaði instead finds that she has picked Njörðr.[17]

In chapter 6, a list of kennings is provided for Njörðr: "God of chariots," "Descendant of Vanir," "a Van," father of Freyr and Freyja, and "the giving god." This is followed by an excerpt from a composition by the 11th century skaldÞórðr Sjáreksson, explained as containing a reference to Skaði leaving Njörðr:

Gundrun became her son's slayer; the wise god-bride [Skadi] could not love the Van; Kialar [Odin] trained horses pretty well; Hamdir is said not to have held back sword-play.[18]

Chapter 7 follows and provides various kennings for Freyr, including referring to him as the son of Njörðr. This is followed by an excerpt from a work by the 10th century skald Egill Skallagrímsson that references Njörðr (here anglicized as "Niord"):

For Freyr and Niord have endowed Griotbiorn with a power of wealth.[18]

In chapter 20, "daughter of Njörðr" is given as a kenning for Freyja.[18] In chapter 33, Njörðr is cited among the gods attending a banquet held by Ægir.[19] In chapter 37, Freyja is again referred to as Njörðr's daughter in a verse by the 12th century skald Einarr Skúlason.[20] In chapter 75, Njörðr is included in a list of the Æsir.[21] Additionally, Njörðr is used in kennings for "warrior" or "warriors" various times in Skáldskaparmál.[22]

Njörðr appears in or is mentioned in three Kings' sagas collected in Heimskringla; Ynglinga saga, the Saga of Hákon the Good and the Saga of Harald Graycloak. In chapter 4 of Ynglinga saga, Njörðr is introduced in connection with the Æsir-Vanir War. When the two sides became tired of war, they came to a peace agreement and exchanged hostages. For their part, the Vanir send to the Æsir their most "outstanding men"; Njörðr, described as wealthy, and Freyr, described as his son, in exchange for the Æsir's Hœnir. Additionally, the Æsir send Mímir in exchange for the wise Kvasir.[23]

Further into chapter 4, Odin appoints Njörðr and Freyr as priests of sacrificial offerings, and they became gods among the Æsir. Freyja is introduced as a daughter of Njörðr, and as the priestess at the sacrifices. In the saga, Njörðr is described as having once wed his unnamed sister while he was still among the Vanir, and the couple produced their children Freyr and Freyja from this union, though this custom was forbidden among the Æsir.[23]

Chapter 5 relates that Odin gave all of his temple priests dwelling places and good estates, in Njörðr's case being Nóatún.[24] Chapter 8 states that Njörðr married a woman named Skaði, though she would not have intercourse with him. Skaði then marries Odin, and the two had numerous sons.[25]

In chapter 9, Odin dies and Njörðr takes over as ruler of the Swedes, and he continues the sacrifices. The Swedes recognize him as their king, and pay him tribute. Njörðr's rule is marked with peace and many great crops, so much so that the Swedes believed that Njörðr held power over the crops and over the prosperity of mankind. During his rule, most of the Æsir die, their bodies are burned, and sacrifices are made by men to them. Njörðr has himself "marked for" Odin and he dies in his bed. Njörðr's body is burnt by the Swedes, and they weep heavily at his tomb. After Njörðr's reign, his son Freyr replaces him, and he is greatly loved and "blessed by good seasons like his father."[26]

In chapter 14 of Saga of Hákon the Good a description of the pagan Germanic custom of Yule is given. Part of the description includes a series of toasts. The toasts begin with Odin's toasts, described as for victory and power for the king, followed by Njörðr and Freyr's toast, intended for good harvests and peace. Following this, a beaker is drank for the king, and then a toast is given for departed kin.[27] Chapter 28 quotes verse where the kenning "Njörðr-of-roller-horses" is used for "sailor".[28] In the Saga of Harald Graycloak, a stanza is given of a poem entitled Vellekla ("Lack of Gold") by the 10th century Icelandic skaldEinarr skálaglamm that mentions Njörðr in a kenning for "warrior."[29]

Veneration of Njörðr survived into 18th or 19th century Norwegian folk practice, as recorded in a tale collected by Halldar O. Opedal from an informant in Odda, Hordaland, Norway. The informant comments on a family tradition in which the god is thanked for a bountiful catch of fish:

The old folk [folk in the olden days?] were always rather lucky when they went fishing. One night old Gunnhild Reinsnos (born in 1746) and Johannes Reinsnos were fishing in the Sjosavatn. They had taken a torch and were fishing with live bait. The fish bit well, and it wasn't long before Gunnhild had a week's supply of fish for her pot. So she wound her line around her rod with the words: "Thanks be to him, to Njor, for this time."[31]

Scholar Georges Dumézil further cites various tales of havmennesker (Norwegian "sea people") who govern over sea weather, wealth, or, in some incidents, give magic boats are likely connected to Njörðr.[32]

Njörðr is often identified with the goddess Nerthus, whose reverence by various Germanic tribes is described by Roman historian Tacitus in his 1st CE century work Germania. The connection between the two is due to the linguistic relationship between Njörðr and the reconstructed*Nerþuz,[33] "Nerthus" being the feminine, Latinized form of what Njörðr would have looked like around 1 CE.[34] This has led to theories about the relation of the two, including that Njörðr may have once been a hermaphroditic god or, generally considered more likely, that the name may indicate an otherwise unattested divine brother and sister pair such as Freyr and Freyja.[33] Consequently, Nerthus has been identified with Njörðr's unnamed sister with whom he had Freyja and Freyr, which is mentioned in Lokasenna.[35]

In Saami mythology, Bieka-Galles (or Biega-, Biegga-Galles, depending on dialect; "The Old Man of the Winds") is a deity who rules over rain and wind, and is the subject of boat and wooden shovel (or, rather, oar) offerings. Due to similarities in between descriptions of Njörðr in Gylfaginning and descriptions of Bieka-Galles in 18th century missionary reports, Axel Olrik identified this deity as the result of influence from the seafaring North Germanic peoples on the landbound Saami.[36]

Parallels have been pointed out between Njörðr and the figure of Hadingus, attested in book I of Saxo Grammaticus' 13th century work Gesta Danorum.[37] Some of these similarities include that, in parallel to Skaði and Njörðr in Skáldskaparmál, Hadingus is chosen by his wife Regnhild after selecting him from other men at a banquet by his lower legs, and, in parallel to Skaði and Njörðr in Gylfaginning, Hadingus complains in verse of his displeasure at his life away from the sea and how he is disturbed by the howls of wolves, while his wife Regnhild complains of life at the shore and states her annoyance at the screeching sea birds.[37]Georges Dumézil theorized that in the tale Hadingus passes through all three functions of his trifunctional hypothesis, before ending as an Odinic hero, paralleling Njörðr's passing from the Vanir to the Æsir in the Æsir-Vanir War.[38]

In stanza 8 of the poem Fjölsvinnsmál, Svafrþorinn is stated as the father of Menglöð by an unnamed mother, who the hero Svipdagr seeks. Menglöð has often been theorized as the goddess Freyja, and according to this theory, Svafrþorinn would therefore be Njörðr. The theory is complicated by the etymology of the name Svafrþorinn (þorinn meaning "brave" and svafr means "gossip") (or possibly connects to sofa "sleep"), which Rudolf Simek says makes little sense when attempting to connect it to Njörðr.[39]

1.
W. G. Collingwood
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William Gershom Collingwood was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading. His father, also William, was a watercolour artist, and had married Marie Eliabeth Imhoff of Arbon, soon young William was sketching with his father in the Lakes, North Wales, and Switzerland. In 1872, he went to University College, Oxford, where he met John Ruskin, during the summer of 1873 Collingwood visited Ruskin at Brantwood, Coniston. Two years later Collingwood was working at Brantwood with Ruskin and his associates, Ruskin admired his draughtsmanship, and so Collingwood studied at the Slade School of Art between 1876 and 1878. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, for many years Collingwood dedicated himself to helping Ruskin, staying at Brantwood as Ruskins assistant and travelling with him to Switzerland. In 1883 he married Edith Mary Isaac and settled near to Ruskin in the Lake District, Collingwood edited a number of Ruskins texts and published a biography of Ruskin in 1893. In 1896, Arthur Ransome met the Collingwoods and their children, Dora, Barbara, Ursula, Ransome learned to sail in Collingwoods boat, Swallow, and became a firm friend of the family, even proposing marriage to both Dora and Barbara. After a summer of teaching Collingwoods grandchildren to sail in Swallow II in 1928, Ransome wrote the first book in his Swallows and he used the names of some of Collingwoods grandchildren for his characters, the Swallows. By the 1890s Collingwood had become a painter and also joined the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian. He wrote a number of papers for its Transactions, becoming editor in 1900. Collingwood was particularly interested in Norse lore and the Norsemen, and he wrote a novel, in 1897, Collingwood travelled to Iceland where he spent three months over the summer exploring with Jón Stefánsson the sites around the country in which the medieval Icelandic sagas are set. Collingwood was a member of the Viking Club and served as its president, in 1902 he co-authored again with Jón Stefánsson the first translation it published, a translation of Kormáks saga entitled, The Life and Death of Kormac the Skald. His study of Norse and Anglican archaeology made him recognized as a leading authority. Collingwood joined the Admiralty intelligence division at the outbreak of the First World War, in 1919, he returned to Coniston and continued his writing with a history of the Lake District and perhaps his most important work, Northumbrian Crosses of the pre-Norman Age. He was a climber and swimmer, and a tireless walker into advanced age. In 1927 he experienced the first of a series of strokes and his wife died in 1928, followed by Collingwood himself in 1932. Following the Armistice of 1918, and the treaty of 1919. His knowledge of and enthusiasm for Scandinavian crosses is displayed at Grasmere where the memorial on Broadgate Meadows is a pastiche of an Anglian cross, the short verse at its base was penned by his close friend Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley who was chair of the memorial committee

2.
Norse mythology
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The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök, there the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world. Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, by way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. In the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, the myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland and this occurred primarily in the 13th century. The Prose Edda was composed as a manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, kennings, the Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, in comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned. Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information, the saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun. By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology may also lend insight, wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths. Of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, the god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf and raven-flanked, and spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds, Odin has a strong association with death, Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Valhalla, where valkyries carry half of those slain in battle. Odins wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel. Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess and she is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain, and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr, Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in far away lands

3.
Vanir
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In Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, nature, magic, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr, after the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir. Subsequently, members of the Vanir are sometimes referred to as members of the Æsir. The Vanir are only attested in these Old Norse sources, Vanir is sometimes anglicized to Wanes. All sources describe the deities Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja as members of the Vanir, a euhemerized prose account in Heimskringla adds that Njörðrs sister—whose name is not provided—and Kvasir were Vanir. In addition, Heimskringla reports a tale involving king Sveigðirs visit to Vanaheimr, where he meets a woman by the name of Vana, while not attested as Vanir, the gods Heimdallr and Ullr have been theorized as potential members of the group. In the Prose Edda, a name listed for boars is Van-child and they have speculated whether the Vanir originally represented pre-Indo-European deities or Indo-European fertility gods, and have theorized a form of the gods as venerated by the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Numerous theories have proposed for the etymology of Vanir. Page says that, while there are no shortages of etymologies for the word, it is tempting to link the word with Old Norse vinr, friend, and Latin Venus, goddess of physical love. In the Poetic Edda, the Vanir, as a group, are referenced in the poems Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál, Skírnismál, Þrymskviða. In Vafþrúðnismál, Gagnráðr engages in a game of wits with the jötunn Vafþrúðnir, Gagnráðr asks Vafþrúðnir where the Van god Njörðr came from, for though he rules over many hofs and hörgrs, Njörðr was not raised among the Æsir. Vafþrúðnir responds that Njörðr was created in Vanaheimr by wise powers and details that during the Æsir–Vanir War, in addition, when the world ends, Njörðr will return to the wise Vanir. Alvíssmál consists of question and answer exchanges between the dwarf Alvíss and the god Thor, in the poem, Alvíss supplies terms that various groups, including the Vanir, use to refer to various subjects. Alvíss attributes nine terms to the Vanir, one for Earth, Heaven, clouds, calm, the sea, fire, wood, seed, the poem Þrymskviða states that the god Heimdallr possesses foreknowledge, as the Vanir also can. Sigrdrífumál records that the Vanir are in possession of a sacred mead, in the poem, the valkyrie Sigrdrífa provides mystical lore about runes to the hero Sigurd. Sigrdrífa notes that runes were carved on to various creatures, deities and other figures. This mead is possessed by the Æsir, the elves, mankind, in Skírnismál, the beautiful jötunn Gerðr first encounters the god Freyrs messenger Skírnir, and asks him if he is of the elves, of the Æsir, or of the wise Vanir. Skírnir responds that he is not of any of the three groups, later in the poem, Skírnir is successful in his threats against Gerðr, and Gerðr offers Skírnir a crystal cup full of mead, noting that she never thought that she would love one of the Vanir

4.
Freyr
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Freyr or Frey is one of the most important gods of Norse religion. The name is conjectured to derive from the Proto-Norse *frawjaz, lord, Freyr was associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, and was pictured as a phallic fertility god, Freyr is said to bestow peace and pleasure on mortals. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house. In the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the Vanir, the gods gave him Álfheimr, the realm of the Elves, as a teething present. He rides the shining dwarf-made boar Gullinbursti and possesses the ship Skíðblaðnir which always has a favorable breeze and can be folded together and he has the servants Skírnir, Byggvir and Beyla. The most extensive surviving Freyr myth relates Freyrs falling in love with the female jötunn Gerðr, eventually, she becomes his wife but first Freyr has to give away his magic sword which fights on its own if wise be he who wields it. Although deprived of this weapon, Freyr defeats the jötunn Beli with an antler, however, lacking his sword, Freyr will be killed by the fire jötunn Surtr during the events of Ragnarök. Like other Germanic deities, veneration of Freyr is revived in the period in Heathenry. Written around 1080, one of the oldest written sources on pre-Christian Scandinavian religious practices is Adam of Bremens Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, Adam claimed to have access to first-hand accounts on pagan practices in Sweden. He refers to Freyr with the Latinized name Fricco and mentions that an image of him at Skara was destroyed by the Christian missionary and his description of the Temple at Uppsala gives some details on the god. Later in the account Adam states that when a marriage is performed a libation is made to the image of Fricco, historians are divided on the reliability of Adams account. While he is close in time to the events he describes he has an agenda to emphasize the role of the Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen in the Christianization of Scandinavia. His timeframe for the Christianization of Sweden conflicts with other sources, such as runic inscriptions, on the other hand, the existence of phallic idols was confirmed in 1904 with a find at Rällinge in Södermanland. When Snorri Sturluson was writing in 13th century Iceland, the indigenous Germanic gods were still remembered although they had not been openly worshiped for more than two centuries, in the Gylfaginning section of his Prose Edda, Snorri introduces Freyr as one of the major gods. This description has similarities to the account by Adam of Bremen. Adam assigns control of the weather and produce of the fields to Thor, Snorri also omits any explicitly sexual references in Freyrs description. Those discrepancies can be explained in several ways and it is possible that the Norse gods did not have exactly the same roles in Icelandic and Swedish paganism but it must also be remembered that Adam and Snorri were writing with different goals in mind. Either Snorri or Adam may also have had distorted information, the only extended myth related about Freyr in the Prose Edda is the story of his marriage

5.
Freyja
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In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. Along with her brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother, stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freyia, and Freja. Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Fólkvangr and there receives half of those that die in battle, whereas the other half go to the god Odins hall, within Fólkvangr is her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyjas husband, the god Óðr, is frequently absent and she cries tears of red gold for him, and searches for him under assumed names. Freyja has numerous names, including Gefn, Hörn, Mardöll, Sýr, Valfreyja, Freyjas name appears in numerous place names in Scandinavia, with a high concentration in southern Sweden. Various plants in Scandinavia once bore her name, but it was replaced with the name of the Virgin Mary during the process of Christianization, rural Scandinavians continued to acknowledge Freyja as a supernatural figure into the 19th century, and Freyja has inspired various works of art. The name Freyja is transparently lady and ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *frawōn, Freyja is cognate with, for example, Old Saxon frūa lady, mistress and Old High German frouwa. The theonym Freyja is thus considered to have been an epithet in origin, in the Poetic Edda, Freyja is mentioned or appears in the poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Oddrúnargrátr, and Hyndluljóð. Völuspá contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as Óðs girl, Freyja being the wife of her husband, the stanza recounts that Freyja was once promised to an unnamed builder, later revealed to be a jötunn and subsequently killed by Thor. In the poem Grímnismál, Odin tells the young Agnar that every day Freyja allots seats to half of those that are slain in her hall Fólkvangr, while Odin owns the other half. In the poem Lokasenna, where Loki accuses nearly every female in attendance of promiscuity and/or unfaithfulness, the introduction to the poem notes that among other gods and goddesses, Freyja attends a celebration held by Ægir. Loki tells her to be silent, and says that he knows all about her—that Freyja is not lacking in blame, for each of the gods and elves in the hall have been her lover. She says that Loki is lying, that he is just looking to blather about misdeeds, and since the gods and goddesses are furious at him, he can expect to go home defeated. Loki tells Freyja to be silent, calls her a malicious witch, Njörðr interjects—he says that a woman having a lover other than her husband is harmless, and he points out that Loki has borne children, and calls Loki a pervert. The poem Þrymskviða features Loki borrowing Freyjas cloak of feathers and Thor dressing up as Freyja to fool the lusty jötunn Þrymr, in the poem, Thor wakes up to find that his powerful hammer, Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor tells Loki of his hammer, and the two go to the beautiful court of Freyja. Thor asks Freyja if she will lend him her cloak of feathers, Freyja agrees, Loki flies away in the whirring feather cloak, arriving in the land of Jötunheimr. He spies Þrymr sitting on top of a mound, Þrymr reveals that he has hidden Thors hammer deep within the earth and that no one will ever know where the hammer is unless Freyja is brought to him as his wife

6.
Poetic Edda
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Poetic Edda is the modern attribution for an unnamed collection of Old Norse anonymous poems, which is different from the Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all consisting primarily of text from the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript known as the Codex Regius, poets who have acknowledged their debt to the Codex Regius include Vilhelm Ekelund, August Strindberg, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ezra Pound, Jorge Luis Borges, and Karin Boye, Codex Regius was written in the 13th century, but nothing is known of its whereabouts until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skálholt. At the time, versions of the Edda were known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that once was another Edda, an Elder Edda. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr the Learned, a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest and that attribution is rejected by modern scholars, but the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes associated with both the Codex Regius and versions of Poetic Edda using it as a source. Bishop Brynjólfur sent Codex Regius as a present to the Danish king, for centuries, it was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen but in 1971, it was returned to Iceland. The Eddic poems are composed in alliterative verse, most are in fornyrðislag, while málaháttr is a common variation. The rest, about a quarter, are composed in ljóðaháttr, the language of the poems is usually clear and relatively unadorned. Kennings are often employed, though they do not arise as frequently, nor are they as complex, like most early poetry, the Eddic poems were minstrel poems, passing orally from singer to singer and from poet to poet for centuries. None of the poems are attributed to an author, though many of them show strong individual characteristics and are likely to have been the work of individual poets. Scholars sometimes speculate on hypothetical authors, but firm and accepted conclusions have never been reached, the dating of the poems has been a source of lively scholarly argument for a long time, and firm conclusions are hard to reach. Lines from the Eddic poems sometimes appear in poems by known poets, for example, Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed in the latter half of the 10th century, and he uses a couple of lines in his Hákonarmál which are also found in Hávamál. It is possible that he was quoting a poem, but it is also possible that Hávamál. The few demonstrably historical characters mentioned in the poems, such as Attila, the dating of the manuscripts themselves provides a more useful terminus ante quem. Individual poems have individual clues to their age, for example, Atlamál hin groenlenzku is claimed by its title to have been composed in Greenland, and seems so by some internal evidence. If so, it can be no earlier than about 985, in some cases, old poems may have been interpolated with younger verses or merged with other poems. For example, stanzas 9-16 of Völuspá, the Dvergatal or Roster of Dwarfs, is considered by scholars to be an interpolation. The problem of dating the poems is linked with the problem of finding out where they were composed, Iceland was not settled until about 870, so anything composed before that time would necessarily have been elsewhere, most likely in Scandinavia

7.
Prose Edda
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The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorris Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland in the early 13th century. The work is assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar. It begins with a euhemerized Prologue, a section on the Norse cosmogony, pantheon and this is followed by three distinct books, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál and Háttatal. Seven manuscripts, dating from around 1300 to around 1600, have independent textual value, Sturluson planned the collection as a textbook. It was to enable Icelandic poets and readers to understand the subtleties of alliterative verse, at that time, versions of the Edda were well known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once was an Elder Edda which contained the poems which Snorri quotes in his Edda. The etymology of Edda remains uncertain, there are many hypotheses, and little agreement. Some argue that the word derives from the name of Oddi, Edda could therefore mean book of Oddi. However, this assumption is generally rejected, Faulkes in his English translation of the Prose Edda commented that this is unlikely, both in terms of linguistics and history since Snorri was no longer living at Oddi when he composed his work. Another connection was made with the word óðr, which means poetry or inspiration in Old Norse, Edda also means great-parent, a word used by Snorri himself in the Skáldskaparmál. That is, with the meaning, the name of a character in the Rigsthula. A final hypothesis is derived from the Latin edo, meaning I write and it relies on the fact that the word kredda is certified and comes from the Latin credo, I believe. It seems likely Snorri would have been able to invent the word, Edda in this case could be translated as Poetic Art. This is the meaning that the word was given in the Middle Ages. The name Sæmundar Edda was given by the Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson to the collection of poems contained in the Codex Regius, many of which are quoted by Snorri. Brynjólfur, along many others of his time incorrectly believed that they were collected by Sæmundr fróði. Seven manuscripts of the Edda have survived, six compositions of the Middle Ages, no one manuscript is complete, and each has variations. In addition to three fragments, the four manuscripts are Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, Codex Trajectinus. Codex Upsaliensis, was composed in the first quarter of the century and is the oldest manuscript preserved of the Edda of Snorri

8.
Snorri Sturluson
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Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing and he was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egils saga, as a historian and mythographer, Snorri is remarkable for proposing the hypothesis that mythological gods begin as human war leaders and kings whose funeral sites develop cults. As people call upon the war leader as they go to battle, or the dead king as they face tribal hardship. Eventually, the king or warrior is remembered only as a god and he also proposed that as tribes defeat others, they explain their victory by proposing that their own gods were in battle with the gods of the others. Snorri Sturluson was born in Hvammur into the wealthy and powerful Sturlungar family of the Icelandic Commonwealth and his parents were Sturla Þórðarson the elder of Hvammur and his second wife, Guðný Böðvarsdóttir. He had two brothers, Þórðr Sturluson and Sighvatr Sturluson, two sisters and nine half-siblings. By a quirk of circumstance Snorri was raised from the age of three by Jón Loftsson, a relative of the Norwegian royal family, in Oddi, Iceland. The resulting settlement would have beggared Páll, but Jón Loftsson intervened in the Althing to mitigate the judgment and, to compensate Sturla, offered to raise, Snorri therefore received an excellent education and made connections that he might not otherwise have made. He attended the school of Sæmundr fróði, grandfather of Jón Loftsson, at Oddi and his father died in 1183 and his mother as guardian soon wasted Snorris share of the inheritance. The two families arranged an marriage in 1199 between Snorri and Herdís, the daughter of Bersi Vermundarson. From her father, Snorri inherited an estate at Borg and a chieftainship and he soon acquired more property and chieftainships. Snorri and Herdís were together for four years at Borg and they had at least two children, Hallbera and Jón. The marriage succumbed to Snorris philandering, and in 1206, he settled in Reykholt as manager of an estate there and he made significant improvements to the estate, including a hot outdoor bath. The bath and the buildings have preserved to some extent. During the initial years at Reykholt he fathered five children by three different women, Guðrún Hreinsdóttir, Oddný, and Þuríður Hallsdóttir, Snorri quickly became known as a poet, but was also a successful lawyer. In 1215, he became lawspeaker of the Althing, the public office of the Icelandic commonwealth. In the summer of 1218, he left the position and sailed to Norway

9.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe

10.
Heimskringla
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Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet, the name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts. Snorri had himself visited Norway and Sweden, for events of the mid-12th century, Snorri explicitly names the now lost work Hryggjarstykki as his source. The composition of the sagas is Snorris, the earliest parchment copy of the work is referred to as Kringla. It voyaged from Iceland to Bergen, Norway and was moved to Copenhagen, at that time it had lost the first page, but the second starts Kringla heimsins, the Earths circle of the Laing translation. In the 17th century copies were made by Icelanders Jon Eggertson, eggertsons copy went to the Royal Library at Stockholm. The Copenhagen manuscript was among the many destroyed in the Copenhagen Fire of 1728. Only one leaf of the manuscript survived and it is now kept in the National, by the mid-16th century, the Old Norse language was unintelligible to Norwegian, Swedish or Danish readers. At that time several translations of extracts were made in Norway into the Danish language, the first complete translation was made around 1600 by Peder Claussøn Friis, and printed in 1633. This was based on a known as Jofraskinna. This edition also included the first printing of the text in Old Norse, a new Danish translation with the text in Old Norse and a Latin translation came out in 1777-1783. An English translation by Samuel Laing was finally published in 1844, in the 19th century, as Norway was achieving independence after centuries of union with Denmark and Sweden, the stories of the independent Norwegian medieval kingdom won great popularity in Norway. Heimskringla, although written by an Icelander, became an important national symbol for Norway during the period of romantic nationalism, Heimskringla consists of several chapters, each one individually called a saga, which can be literally translated as tale. The subsequent sagas are devoted to individual rulers, starting with Halfdan the Black, the stories are told with a life and freshness, giving a picture of human life in all its reality. A version of the Óláfs saga helga, which is about the saint Olaf II of Norway, is the main part and his 15-year-long reign takes up about one third of the entire work. This saga is an epic in prose, and is also of particular relevance to the history of England. The first part of the Heimskringla is rooted in Norse mythology, as it advances, fable and fact all curiously intermingle, the value of Heimskringla as a historical source has been estimated in different ways during recent times. The historians of mid-19th century put great trust in the truth of Snorris narrative

11.
Scandinavia
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Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usually not seen as a part of Scandinavia, nor is Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark. This looser definition almost equates to that of the Nordic countries, in Nordic languages, only Denmark, Norway and Sweden are commonly included in the definition of Scandinavia. In English usage, Scandinavia sometimes refers to the geographical area, the name Scandinavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region Scania. Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent descended from the Norse, Finland is mainly populated by Finns, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. A small minority of Sami people live in the north of Scandinavia. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent, Finnish and Meänkieli are closely related to each other and more distantly to the Sami languages, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Apart from these, German, Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in Scandinavia, the southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountains have a tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of the last glacial period, Scandinavia usually refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Some sources argue for the inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland, though that broader region is known by the countries concerned as Norden. Before this time, the term Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through Pliny the Elders writings, and was used vaguely for Scania, as a political term, Scandinavia was first used by students agitating for Pan-Scandinavianism in the 1830s. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism, the term is often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own use. More precisely, and subject to no dispute, is that Finland is included in the broader term Nordic countries, various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, Norways government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America, Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries

12.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him

13.
Nerthus
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In Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with fertility. Nerthus is attested by Tacitus, the first century AD Roman historian, the priests feel her presence by the cart, and, with deep reverence, attend her cart, which is drawn by heifers. Everywhere the goddess then deigns to visit, she is met with celebration, hospitality, all iron objects are locked away, and no one will leave for war. When the goddess has had her fill she is returned to her temple by the priests, Tacitus adds that the goddess, the cart, and the cloth are then washed by slaves in a secluded lake. The name Nerthus is generally held to be a Latinized form of Proto-Germanic *Nerþuz, while scholars have noted numerous parallels between the descriptions of the two figures, Njörðr is attested as a male deity. Nerthus is often identified with the Wane Njörðr who is attested in various 13th century Old Norse works and this form was proposed as an attempt to mirror the Old Norse goddess name Jörð earth. Writing on this topic in 1912, Raymond Wilson Chambers says strange has been the history of this goddess Nerthus in modern times, sixteenth century scholars found irresistible the temptation to emend the name of Mother Earth into Herthum, which nineteenth century scholars further improved into Hertham, Ertham. For many years this false goddess drove out the deity from the fortieth chapter of the Germania. Up until its superseding, the name Hertha had some influence, for example, Hertha and Herthasee play major roles in German novelist Theodor Fontanes 1896 novel Effi Briest. A number of scholars have proposed a location of Tacitus account of Nerthus as on the island of Zealand in Denmark. The reasoning behind this notion is the linking of the name Nerthus with the place name Niartharum located on Zealand. Further justification is given in that Lejre, the seat of the ancient kings of Denmark, is located on Zealand. However, along with the rejection of the reading Hertha, the location is now no longer considered as a potential site, Nerthus wagon tour of has been likened to several archeological wagon finds and legends of deities parading in wagons. Terry Gunnell and many others have noted various archaeological finds of ritual wagons in Denmark dating from 200 AD, such a ceremonial wagon, incapable of making turns, was discovered in the Oseberg ship find. Nerthus typically is identified as a Vanir goddess, two of the most famous literary examples occur in the Icelandic family sagas. In the same source, King Eric of Sweden is said to consult a god named Lýtir, davidson says that the evidence suggests that similar customs as detailed in Tacitus account continued to exist during the close of the pagan period through worship of the Vanir. The minor planet 601 Nerthus is named after Nerthus

14.
Hadingus
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Hadingus was one of the earliest legendary Danish kings according to Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum, where he has a detailed biography. Georges Dumézil and others have argued that Hadingus was partially modelled on the god Njörðr, Hadingus is the legendary the son of Gram of Denmark and Signe, the daughter of Finnish King Sumble. Gram steals Signe from her wedding, kills the husband and takes her to Denmark, when Gram is killed by Swipdag, King of Norway, Hadingus is taken to Sweden and is fostered by the giant Wagnofthus and his daughter Harthgrepa. He is eager to become a warrior but Harthgrepa tries to him from it in favor of entering into a quasi-incestuous love-relationship with her. Why doth thy life thus waste and wander, why dost thou pass thy years unwed, following arms, thirsting for throats. Nor does my beauty draw thy vows, carried away by excess of frenzy, thou art little prone to love. Steeped in blood and slaughter, thou judgest wars better than the bed, thy fierceness finds no leisure, dalliance is far from thee, and savagery fostered. Nor is thy hand free from blasphemy while thou loathest the rites of love, the Danish History, Book One Hadingus accepts Harthgrepas embraces and when he wants to travel back to Denmark she accompanies him. After raising a man from the dead to obtain information, Harthgrepa is killed by supernatural beings, at this point Hadingus acquires a new patron, Odin, who predicts his future and gives him advice. Hadingus wages wars in the Baltic and achieves victory and renown and he then returns to Scandinavia, defeats Suibdagerus, his fathers slayer, and becomes king of Denmark. As king he has an eventful career ahead of him, the story of Hadding is retold in fictionalized form by Poul Anderson in the novel War of the Gods. From Myth to Fiction, The Saga of Hadingus, davidson, Hilda Ellis and Peter Fisher. Saxo Grammaticus, The History of the Danes, Books I-IX, bury St Edmunds, St Edmundsbury Press. The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, available online Olrik, J. and H. Ræder

15.
Norse paganism
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Norse religion refers to the religious traditions of the Norsemen prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, specifically during the Viking Age. Norse religion is a folk religion and it was the northern variation of the religion practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe prior to Roman and Holy Roman incursions. However, it was not formalized nor categorized as a subset of Germanic paganism until it was described by outsiders who came into contact with native practitioners. The Norse - or people of Scandinavia - have always had contact with cultures outside Scandinavia. They were well aware of foreign religions and they traded, intermarried and sometimes worked as henchmen for other cultures, including the Romans. Most titles bestowed upon Norse religion are the ones which were used to describe the religion in a competitive manner, some of these terms were hedendom, Heidentum, Heathenry or Pagan. A more romanticized name for Norse religion is the medieval Icelandic term Forn Siðr or Old Custom, knowledge about Norse religion has been gathered from archaeological discoveries and from literature produced after the Christianization of Scandinavia. The literary sources that reference Norse paganism were written after the religion had declined, the vast majority of this came from 13th-century Iceland, where Christianity had taken longest to gain hold because of its remote location. The key literary texts for the study of Norse religion are the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus and the Poetic Edda, by an unknown writer or writers. Saga literature informs us of the not only of the literate elite. Sagas are categorized on the basis of events described in the saga took place. Though Sagas are often mythical in nature, the ambitions are to give a realistic description of past events. Many sites in Scandinavia have yielded information about early Scandinavian culture. The oldest extant cultural examples are petroglyphs or helleristninger/hällristningar and these are usually divided into two categories according to age, hunting-glyphs and agricultural-glyphs. The hunting glyphs are the oldest and are found in Northern Scandinavia. These finds seem to indicate an existence based on hunting and fishing. These motifs were gradually subsumed by glyphs with more zoomorphic, or perhaps religious, the glyphs from the region of Bohuslän are later complemented with younger agricultural glyphs, which seem to depict an existence based more heavily on agriculture. These later motifs primarily depict ships, solar and lunar motifs, geometrical spirals and anthropomorphic beings and these finds shows several signs of rituals in a seemingly religious context, including some strong indications of human sacrifice such as the case of the Tollund Man bog body

16.
Proto-Germanic
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Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the Migration Period in the fourth century, the Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any coherent surviving texts, it has been reconstructed using the comparative method. Fragmentary direct attestation exists of Common Germanic in early runic inscriptions, the Proto-Germanic language developed in southern Scandinavia, the Urheimat of the Germanic tribes. Proto-Germanic developed out of pre-Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe, Proto-Germanic itself was likely spoken after c. Early Germanic expansion in the Pre-Roman Iron Age placed Proto-Germanic speakers in contact with the Continental Celtic La Tène horizon, a number of Celtic loanwords in Proto-Germanic have been identified. By the 1st century AD, Germanic expansion reaches the Danube and the Upper Rhine in the south, at about the same time, extending east of the Vistula, Germanic speakers come into contact with early Slavic cultures, as reflected in early Germanic loans in Proto-Slavic. By the 3rd century, LPGmc speakers had expanded over significant distance, the period marks the breakup of Late Proto-Germanic and the beginning of the Germanic migrations. The earliest coherent text in Proto-Norse become available c.400 in runic inscriptions, the delineation of Late Common Germanic from Proto-Norse about then is largely a matter of convention. Early West Germanic becomes available in the 5th century with the Frankish Bergakker inscription, between the two points, many sound changes occurred. Phylogeny as applied to historical linguistics involves the descent of languages. The Germanic languages form a tree with Proto-Germanic at its root that is a branch of the Indo-European tree, borrowing of lexical items from contact languages makes the relative position of the Germanic branch within Indo-European less clear than the positions of the other branches of Indo-European. In the course of the development of linguistics, various solutions have been proposed, none certain. In the evolutionary history of a family, philologists consider a genetic tree model appropriate only if communities do not remain in effective contact as their languages diverge. The internal diversification of West Germanic developed in an especially non-treelike manner, Proto-Germanic is generally agreed to have begun about 500 BC. Its hypothetical ancestor between the end of Proto-Indo-European and 500 BC is termed Pre-Proto-Germanic, whether it is to be included under a wider meaning of Proto-Germanic is a matter of usage. The fixation of the led to sound changes in unstressed syllables. For Lehmann, the boundary was the dropping of final -a or -e in unstressed syllables, for example, post-PIE *wóyd-e > Gothic wait. Antonsen agreed with Lehmann about the boundary but later found runic evidence that the -a was not dropped, ékwakraz … wraita, I, Wakraz

17.
Helsingborg
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Helsingborg is a town and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania, Sweden. It had 132,989 inhabitants in 2013, Helsingborg is the centre of the northern part of western Scania. This makes Helsingborg the fourth largest population area in Sweden, the city is also Swedens closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city Helsingør clearly visible on the other side of the Øresund about 4 km to the west, closer than to the citys own remoter areas. If including all population around the part of Øresund, as a Helsingborg-Helsingør metropolitan area. The busy ferry route, known as the HH Ferry route has through history been operated by shipping lines. As of 2014 more than 70 car ferries departures from each harbour every day, following the Swedish orthography reform of 1906 many place names in Sweden got a modernized spelling. In 1912 it was decided to use the form Hälsingborg, in preparation for the local government reform 1971 the Hälsingborg city council proposed that the new, enlarged municipality should be spelled with an e. This was also the decision of the Government of Sweden, effective from 1 January 1971, historic Helsingborg, with its many old buildings, is a scenic coastal city. The buildings are a blend of old-style stone-built churches and a 600-year-old medieval fortress in the city centre, the streets vary from wide avenues to small alley-ways. Kullagatan, the pedestrian shopping street in the city, was the first pedestrian shopping street in Sweden. Helsingborg is one of the oldest cities of what is now Sweden and it has been the site of permanent settlement officially since 21 May 1085. Helsingborgs geographical position at the narrowest part of Øresund made it important for Denmark. From 1429 Eric of Pomerania introduced the Øresundstolden, a levy on all trading vessels passing through the sound between Elsinore and Helsingborg and this was one of the main incomes for the Danish Crown. Crossing traffic, like fishermen, was not subject to the tax, the Sound Dues primarily made Helsingør flourish, but quite a bit spilled over to Helsingborg. Evidence of this is William Shakespeares masterpiece Hamlet, which unfolda at Kronborg, and the Prince of Denmark may well have hidden himself from his evil uncle in Helsingborg. In any case, the Renaissance was a period for the Kingdom of Denmark. But towards the middle of the 17th Century, dark clouds appeared from the North, following the Dano-Swedish War and the Treaty of Roskilde Denmark had to give up all territory on the southern Scandinavian peninsula, and Helsingborg became submitted to new rulers. King Charles X Gustav of Sweden landed here on 5 March 1658 to take possession of the Scanian lands and was met by a delegation led by the bishop of the Diocese of Lund

18.
Sponge
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Sponges are the basalmost clade of animals of the phylum Porifera. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems, instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges are similar to animals in that they are multicellular, heterotrophic, lack cell walls. Unlike other animals, they lack true tissues and organs, and have no body symmetry, the shapes of their bodies are adapted for maximal efficiency of water flow through the central cavity, where it deposits nutrients, and leaves through a hole called the osculum. Many sponges have internal skeletons of spongin and/or spicules of calcium carbonate or silicon dioxide, all sponges are sessile aquatic animals. Although there are species, the great majority are marine species. A few species of sponge that live in food-poor environments have become carnivores that prey mainly on small crustaceans, most species use sexual reproduction, releasing sperm cells into the water to fertilize ova that in some species are released and in others are retained by the mother. The fertilized eggs form larvae which swim off in search of places to settle, sponges are known for regenerating from fragments that are broken off, although this only works if the fragments include the right types of cells. A few species reproduce by budding, the mesohyl functions as an endoskeleton in most sponges, and is the only skeleton in soft sponges that encrust hard surfaces such as rocks. More commonly, the mesohyl is stiffened by mineral spicules, by spongin fibers or both, demosponges use spongin, and in many species, silica spicules and in some species, calcium carbonate exoskeletons. Demosponges constitute about 90% of all known species, including all freshwater ones. The fragile glass sponges, with scaffolding of silica spicules, are restricted to polar regions, fossils of all of these types have been found in rocks dated from 580 million years ago. In addition Archaeocyathids, whose fossils are common in rocks from 530 to 490 million years ago, are now regarded as a type of sponge, the single-celled choanoflagellates resemble the choanocyte cells of sponges which are used to drive their water flow systems and capture most of their food. This along with studies of ribosomal molecules have been used as morphological evidence to suggest sponges are the sister group to the rest of animals. Some studies have shown that sponges do not form a group, in other words do not include all. Recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that comb jellies rather than sponges are the group to the rest of animals. By the 1950s, though, these had been overfished so heavily that the industry almost collapsed, sponges and their microscopic endosymbionts are now being researched as possible sources of medicines for treating a wide range of diseases

19.
Classical mythology
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Classical mythology or Greco-Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and political thought, mythology represents one of the major survivals of classical antiquity throughout later Western culture, the Greek word mythos refers to the spoken word or speech, but it also denotes a tale, story or narrative. Classical myths are also alluded to in scientific naming, particularly in astronomy, chemistry, and biology, and in the theory of Freud. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when Latin remained the dominant language in Europe for international educated discourse, mythological names almost always appeared in Latinized form. With the Greek revival of the 19th century, however, Greek names began to be used more often, classical mythology is a term often used to designate the myths belonging to the Greek and Roman traditions. A classical myth as it appears in later Western culture is usually a syncretism of various versions from both Greek and Latin sources. Greek myths were narratives related to ancient Greek religion, often concerned with the actions of gods and other supernatural beings, major sources for Greek myths include the Homeric epics, that is, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Known versions are preserved in sophisticated literary works shaped by the artistry of individuals and by the conventions of genre, or in vase painting. In these forms, mythological narratives often serve purposes that are not primarily religious, such as entertainment and even comedy, Roman myths have a dynamic relation to Roman historiography, as in the early books of Livys Ab urbe condita. The literary collection of Greco-Roman myths with the greatest influence on later Western culture was the Metamorphoses of the Augustan poet Ovid. The myths as they appear in popular culture of the 20th and 21st centuries often have only a tangential relation to the stories as told in ancient Greek and Latin literature

20.
Saturn (mythology)
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Saturn is a god in ancient Roman religion, and a character in myth. Saturn is a complex figure because of his associations and long history. In later developments he came to be also a god of time and his reign was depicted as a Golden Age of plenty and peace. The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum housed the state treasury, in December, he was celebrated at what is perhaps the most famous of the Roman festivals, the Saturnalia, a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry. Saturn the planet and Saturday are both named after the god, the Roman soil preserved the remembrance of a very remote time during which Saturn and Janus reigned on the site of the city before its foundation, the Capitol was named mons Saturnius. The Romans identified Saturn with the Greek Cronus, whose myths were adapted for Latin literature, in particular, Cronuss role in the genealogy of the Greek gods was transferred to Saturn. As early as Livius Andronicus, Jupiter was called the son of Saturn, Saturn had two consorts who represented different aspects of the god. The name of his wife Ops, the Roman equivalent of Greek Rhea, means wealth, abundance, the association with Ops though is considered a later development, as this goddess was originally paired with Consus. Earlier was Saturns association with Lua, a goddess who received the weapons of enemies destroyed in war. Under Saturns rule, humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labour in the Golden Age described by Hesiod, according to Varro, Saturns name was derived from satu, meaning sowing. Even though this etymology looks implausible on linguistic grounds nevertheless it does reflect a feature of the god. A more probable etymology connects the name with Etruscan god Satre and placenames such as Satria, an ancient town of Latium, and Saturae palus and this root may be related to Latin phytonym satureia. Another epithet, variably Sterculius, Stercutus, and Sterces, referred to his agricultural functions, agriculture was important to Roman identity, and Saturn was a part of archaic Roman religion and ethnic identity. His name appears in the ancient hymn of the Salian priests, the temple was consecrated in 497 BC but the area Saturni was built by king Tullus Hostilius as confirmed by archaeological studies conducted by E. Gjerstad. It housed the state treasury throughout Roman history, the position of Saturns festival in the Roman calendar led to his association with concepts of time, especially the temporal transition of the New Year. In the Greek tradition, Cronus was sometimes conflated with Chronus, Time, in late antiquity, Saturn is syncretized with a number of deities, and begins to be depicted as winged, as is Kairos, Timing, Right Time. The figure of Saturn is one of the most complex in Roman religion, G. Dumézil refrained from discussing Saturn in his work on Roman religion on the grounds of our insufficient knowledge. Brelich and G. Piccaluga as his basis, the main difficulty scholars find in studying Saturn is in assessing what is original of his figure and what is due to later hellenising influences

21.
Gloss (annotation)
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A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the language if that is different. A collection of glosses is a glossary, a collection of medieval legal glosses, made by glossators, is called an apparatus. The compilation of glosses into glossaries was the beginning of lexicography, in modern times a glossary, as opposed to a dictionary, is typically found in a text as an appendix of specialized terms that the typical reader may find unfamiliar. Also, satirical explanations of words and events are called glosses, the German Romantic movement used the expression of gloss for poems commenting on a given other piece of poetry, often in the Spanish Décima style. Glosses were originally made in the margin or between the lines of a text in a classical language, the meaning of a word or passage is explained by the gloss. Today parenthetical explanations in scientific writing and technical writing are often called glosses. Hyperlinks to a glossary sometimes supersede them, the word gloss was first used in the 1570s to refer to the insertion of a word as an explanation. It began to be used to mean to explain away in the 1630s, glosses and other marginal notes were a primary format used in medieval Biblical theology, and were studied and memorized for their own merit. Many Biblical passages came to be associated with a particular gloss, in the medieval legal tradition, the glosses on Roman law and Canon law created standards of reference, so-called sedes materiae. In common law countries, the term judicial gloss refers to what is considered an authoritative or official interpretation of a statute or regulation by a judge, judicial glosses are often very important in avoiding contradictions between statutes, and determining the constitutionality of various provisions of law. A gloss, or glosa, is a verse in traditional Iberian literature and music which follows, glosses are of some importance in philology, especially if one language—usually, the language of the author of the gloss—has left few texts of its own. A series of glosses in the Old English language to Latin Bibles give us a running translation of Biblical texts in that language, glosses of Christian religious texts are also important for our knowledge of Old Irish. In linguistics, a gloss in running text may be marked by single quotation marks. For example, A Cossack longboat is called a chaika seagull, the moose gains its name from the Algonquian mus or mooz. A longer or more complex transcription may rely upon an interlinear gloss, such a gloss may be placed between a text and its translation when it is important to understand the structure of the language being glossed, and not just the overall meaning of the passage. Sign languages are typically transcribed word-for-word by means of a written in the predominant oral language in all capitals, American Sign Language. Prosody is often glossed as superscript words, with its scope indicated by brackets, pure fingerspelling is usually indicated by hyphenation

22.
Odin
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In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In the modern period, Odin continued to be acknowledged in the folklore of Germanic Europe. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, though narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland and these texts make up the bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak, Odin is attested as having many sons, most famously the god Baldr with Frigg, and is known by hundreds of names. Odin has an association with Yule, and mankinds knowledge of both the runes and poetry is also attributed to him. In Old Norse texts, Odin is given primacy over female beings associated with the battlefield—the valkyries—and oversees Valhalla, where he receives half of those who die in battle, the other half are chosen by the goddess Freyja for her afterlife location, Fólkvangr. In later folklore, Odin appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt and he has also been associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. Odin has been a frequent subject of study in Germanic studies, in the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other forms of media. He is venerated in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry, together with other gods venerated by the ancient Germanic peoples, some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym Óðinn and its cognates, including Old English Wōden, Old Saxon Wōden, the masculine noun *wōđanaz developed from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wōđaz, related to Latin vātēs and Old Irish fáith, both meaning seer, prophet. Adjectives stemming from *wōđaz include Gothic woþs possessed, Old Norse óðr, mad, frantic, furious, additionally the Old Norse noun æði rage, fury and Old High German wuotī madness derive from the feminine noun *wōđīn, from *wōđaz. Over 170 names are recorded for the god Odin and these names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with the god. This multitude of names makes Odin the god with the most names known among the Germanic peoples, the weekday name Wednesday derives from Old English wōdnesdæg. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German wōdensdach, all of these terms derive from Proto-Germanic *Wodensdag, itself a Germanic interpretation of Latin Dies Mercurii. However, in Old High German, the derived from Odins was replaced by a translation of Church Latin media hebdomas. The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans and they regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind, in this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as Mercury, Thor as Hercules, and Týr as Mars, and the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have very different

23.
Vanaheimr
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In Norse mythology, Vanaheimr is one of the Nine Worlds and home of the Vanir, a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. Vanaheimr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from traditional sources. In the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Vanaheimr is described as the location where the Van god Njörðr was raised, in Norse cosmology, Vanaheimr is considered one of the Nine Worlds. Vanaheimr is mentioned a time in the Poetic Edda, in a stanza of the poem Vafþrúðnismál. In Vafþrúðnismál, Gagnráðr engages in a game of wits with the jötunn Vafþrúðnir, Gagnráðr asks Vafþrúðnir whence the Van god Njörðr came, for, though he rules over many hofs and hörgrs, Njörðr was not raised among the Æsir. Vafþrúðnir responds that Njörðr was created in Vanaheimr by wise powers, the Heimskringla book Ynglinga saga records an euhemerized account of the origins of Norse mythology. In chapter 1, Van Home or the Home of the Vanir is described as located around the Don River, chapter 4 describes the Æsir-Vanir War, noting that during a hostage exchange, the Æsir sent the god Hœnir to Vanaheim and there he was immediately made chieftain. In chapter 15, the king Sveigðir is recorded as having married a woman named Vana in Vanaland, the two produced a child, who they named Vanlandi. In a stanza of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, an unnamed völva mentions the existence of nine worlds and these worlds are nowhere specifically listed in sequence, but are generally assumed to include Vanaheimr. Henry Adams Bellows considers the other eight to be Asgard, Álfheimr, Midgard, Jötunheimr, Svartálfaheimr, Niflheim, Múspellsheimr, davidson notes a connection between the Vanir and the land-spirits who dwelt in mounds and hills and in water. Rudolf Simek claims that Snorri unquestionably invented the name Vanaheimr as a Vanir counterpart to Asgard, in the Marvel Comics universes, Vanaheim is also one of the Nine Worlds, home to the Vanir — including Frigga, Queen of Asgard and mother to Thor. Vanaheim appears in titles, most notably storylines of the Thor. The people of Vanaheim go to war against the nine realms due to the resurgence of old grudges inflamed by the demon Surtur. Vanaheim is featured as a location in the Marvel Studios film Thor, The Dark World and its inhabitants resemble humans of northeast Asian descent. The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe, Heimskringla, History of the Kings of Norway. Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend, ISBN 1-84384-042-1 Simek, Rudolf translated by Angela Hall. ISBN 0-85991-513-1 Thorpe, Benjamin The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson

24.
Flyting
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Flyting or fliting is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults, often conducted in verse, between two parties. Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practised mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries, the root is the Old English word flītan meaning quarrel. Examples of flyting are found throughout Norse, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, the exchanges would become extremely provocative, often involving accusations of cowardice or sexual perversion. Norse literature contains stories of the gods flyting, for example, in Lokasenna the god Loki insults the other gods in the hall of Ægir and the poem Hárbarðsljóð in which Hárbarðr engages in flyting with Thor. In the confrontation of Beowulf and Unferð in the poem Beowulf, in Anglo-Saxon England, flyting would take place in a feasting hall. The winner would be decided by the reactions of those watching the exchange, the winner would drink a large cup of beer or mead in victory, then invite the loser to drink as well. The 13th century poem The Owl and the Nightingale and Geoffrey Chaucers Parlement of Foules contain elements of flyting, Flyting became public entertainment in Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries where makars would engage in verbal contests of provocative, often sexual and scatological but highly poetic abuse. Flyting was permitted despite the fact that the penalty for profanities in public was a fine of 20 shillings for a lord or a whipping for servant, James IV and James V encouraged court flyting between poets for their entertainment and occasionally engaged with them. The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie records a contest between William Dunbar and Walter Kennedy in front of James IV, which includes the earliest recorded use of the word shit as a personal insult. In 1536 the poet Sir David Lyndsay composed a ribald 60 line flyte to James V after the King demanded a response to a flyte, flytings appear in several of William Shakespeares plays. Margaret Galway analysed 13 comic flytings and several other exchanges in the tragedies. Flytings also appear in the Nicholas Udalls Ralph Roister Doister and John Stills Gammer Gurtons Needle from the same era, while flyting died out in Scottish writing after the Middle Ages, it continued for writers of Celtic background. Robert Burns parodied flyting in his poem, To a Louse, joyce played with the traditional two character exchange by making one of the characters society as a whole. Taunting songs are present in the Inuit culture, among many others, Flyting can also be found in Arabic poetry in a popular form called naqā’iḍ, as well as the competitive verses of Japanese Haikai. Echoes of the genre continue into modern poetry, hugh MacDiarmids poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, for example, has many passages of flyting in which the poets opponent is, in effect, the rest of humanity. In Finnic Kalevala the hero Väinämöinen uses similar practice of kilpalaulanta to win opposing Joukahainen, for example, Mattaeus, ic þé onsecge þæt þín scofl is nú unscearp æfter géara ungebótes. Beot Slam poetry The Dozens Battle rap Flyting – britannica. com

25.
Lokasenna
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Lokasenna is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki, Loki, amongst other things, accuses the gods of moralistic sexual impropriety, the practice of seiðr, and bias. Not ostensibly the most serious of allegations, however these elements are ultimately to lead to the onset of Ragnarök in the Eddic poem Völuspá. However, Lokasenna does not directly state that Lokis binding is as a consequence of the killing of Baldr and this is explicitly stated only in Snorri Sturlusons Prose Edda. The setting is a feast given by the sea god Ægir, (In continuity, the prose introduction says, Ægir, also named Gymir, had made ale for the Æsir, when he had received the great kettle of which was told. Thor did not attend, but his wife Sif came in his stead as did Bragi, many other Vanir, Æsir, and also elves were there. The servants of Ægir, Fimafeng and Eldir, did a job of welcoming the guests, Loki was jealous of the praise being heaped upon them. The gods were angry with Loki and drove him out of the hall and he threatened him and bade him reveal what the gods were talking about in their cups. Eldirs response was that they were discussing their might at arms, Loki then enters the hall of Ægir after trading insults and threats with Eldir. Loki calls upon the rules of hospitality, demanding a seat, Bragi then responds that he is unwelcome. Loki demands fulfillment of an ancient oath sworn with Odin that they should drink together, Odin asked his son Vidar to make a space for Loki. Vidar rises and pours a drink for Loki, before Loki drains his draught, he utters a toast to the gods but pointedly excludes Bragi from it. Bragi offers Loki a horse, a ring and a sword to him, Loki, however, is spoiling for a fight. Bragis response is that it would be contrary to the rules of behaviour to fight within his hosts hall. Iðunn, Bragis wife, holds him back, Loki then insults Iðunn, calling her sexually loose. Gefjon is the next to speak and then Loki turns his spite on her, Odin then attempts to take a grip, as do, Freyja, Niord, Tyr, Freyr and Byggvir. The exchanges between Odin and Loki are particularly vitriolic, eventually Thor turns up at the party, and he is not to be placated, nor withheld. Alternating with Lokis insults to him, he says four times that he use his hammer to knock Lokis head off if he continues

26.
Loki
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In Norse mythology, Loki, Loptr, or Hveðrungr is a god or jötunn. Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi, by the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Narfi and/or Nari, by the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki is the mother—giving birth in the form of a mare—to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In addition, Loki is referred to as the father of Váli in Prose Edda, though this also refers to Odin as the father of Váli twice. Lokis relation with the gods varies by source, Loki sometimes assists the gods, Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon, a mare, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman named Þökk. Lokis positive relations with the end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him while he is bound, Loki may be depicted on the Snaptun Stone, the Kirkby Stephen Stone, and the Gosforth Cross. Lokis origins and role in Norse mythology, which scholars have described as that of a trickster god, have been much debated by scholars. Loki has been depicted in or is referenced in a variety of media in popular culture. The etymology of the name Loki has yet to be solved and it may be related to Old Norse luka, meaning close, shut. The name Hveðrungr is also used in reference to Loki, occurring in names for Hel, in the Poetic Edda, Loki appears in the poems Völuspá, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Reginsmál, Baldrs draumar, and Hyndluljóð. In stanza 35 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá, a völva tells Odin that, among other things, she sees Sigyn sitting very unhappily with her bound husband, Loki. In stanza 54, after consuming Odin and being killed by Odins son Víðarr, the poem Lokasenna centers around Loki flyting with other gods, Loki puts forth two stanzas of insults while the receiving figure responds with a single stanza, and then another figure chimes in. The poem begins with an introduction detailing that Ægir, a figure associated with the sea, is hosting a feast in his hall for a number of the gods. There, the gods praise Ægirs servers Fimafeng and Eldir, Loki could not bear to hear that, and kills the servant Fimafeng. In response, the gods grab their shields, shrieking at Loki, the gods then return to the hall, and continue drinking. Entrance and rejection Loki comes out of the woods, and meets Eldir outside of the hall, Loki greets Eldir with a demand that Eldir tell him what the gods are discussing over their ale inside the hall. Eldir responds that they discuss their weapons and their prowess in war, Loki says that he will go into the feast, and that, before the end of the feast, he will induce quarrelling among the gods, and mix their mead with malice

27.
Hymir
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In Norse mythology, Hymir is a giant, husband of the giantess Hroðr and according to the Eddic poem Hymiskviða the father of the god Týr. He is the owner of a cauldron in which the Æsir wanted to brew beer, Thor, accompanied by Týr. Hymiskviða recounts how Thor and Týr obtain the cauldron from Hymir and his skull is unusually hard, and Thor breaks a cup by throwing it at Hymirs head. Hymiskviða also recounts Thors fishing for Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent, the Prose Edda provides the additional detail that while Thor was attempting to pull Jörmungandr in, his feet went through the bottom of the boat. This encounter between Thor and Jörmungandr seems to have one of the most popular motifs in Norse art. Three picture stones have been linked with the story and show Hymir, the Ardre VIII image stone, the Hørdum stone, a stone slab that may be a portion of a second cross at Gosforth also shows a fishing scene using an ox head for bait. The legend is depicted on the Altuna Runestone, but its image does not show Hymir

28.
Gylfaginning
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Gylfaginning, is the first part of Snorri Sturlusons Prose Edda after Prologue. The Gylfaginning deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Norse gods, the second part of the Prose Edda is called the Skáldskaparmál and the third Háttatal. This is why he journeys to Asgard, but on the way he is tricked by the gods and arrives in some other place, inside the palace he encounters a man who asks Gylfis name and so king Gylfi introduces himself as Gangleri. Gangleri then is taken to the king of the palace and comes upon three men, High, Just-As-High, and Third, Gangleri is then challenged to show his wisdom by asking questions, as is the custom in many Norse sagas. Each question made to High, Just-As-High, and Third is about an aspect of the Norse mythology or its gods, in the end all the palace and its people just vanish and Gylfi is left standing on empty ground. It is then implied that as Gylfi returns to his nation and it can be argued that Snorri used this narrative device as a means of being able to safely document a vanishing and largely oral tradition within a Christian context. Gylfaginning in Old Norse at heimskringla. no Text of all original manuscripts The text with modern Icelandic spelling English translation

29.
Friedrich Wilhelm Heine
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heine is a German-born painter known for his genre works and paintings depicting Norse mythology. He was born in Leipzig, Germany, and died in Milwaukee, Friedrich Wilhelm Heine spent the first forty years of his life in Germany. At the age of fourteen he was a copper and steel engravers apprentice and later attended the Leipzig and Weimar Academies in Germany, working as a book illustrator and designer from 1861 to 1866. He was a war correspondent and sketch artist with the Prussian Army in Austria and he was one of about twenty German artists commissioned to paint Storming of Missionary Ridge / Battle of Chattanooga and Battle of Atlanta. In 1887, August Lohr and Friedrich Heine purchased the Wells Street studio from the American Panorama Company and formed the Lohr, subsequently, they created the panorama Jerusalem on the Day of the Crucifixion. In 1888 Lohr, Heine, Imre Boos and Paul Zabel formed the Milwaukee Panorama Co, at least eight panorama paintings were produced at the Wells street studio. In 1888, he opened the Heine School of Art, a watercolor and etching studio, the school was located in Milwaukees Iron Block Building, a favorite spot of local artists. After the Spanish American War Heine, Lohr, Peter, Rohrbeck, in 1900, he and another artist, George Peter, went to Jerusalem to sketch church interiors for a series of murals to be shown at the 1904 World’s Fair, St. Louis Exposition. Throughout 1908 Heine traveled to Door County, Wisconsin and Muir Woods California, Heine was one of the founding members of the Society of Milwaukee Artists, now known as Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors. His early works demonstrated a well-defined brush stroke and a concern for detail. His later works involved a broader and less defined form and tonalist qualities

30.
Skald
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The term skald or skáld, meaning ‘poet’, is generally used for poets who composed at the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. Skaldic poetry forms one of two groupings of Old Norse poetry, the other being the anonymous Eddic poetry. The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is dróttkvætt, the subject is usually historical and encomiastic, detailing the deeds of the skalds patron. There is no evidence that the skalds employed musical instruments, the technical demands of the skaldic form were equal to the complicated verse forms mastered by the Welsh bards and Gaelic ollaves. Like those poets, much skaldic verse consisted of panegyrics to kings, the word skald is perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *skalliz sound, voice, shout. Old High German has skalsang song of praise, psalm, and skellan means ring, clang, the Old High German variant stem skeltan etymologically identical to the skald- stem means to scold, blame, accuse, insult. The person doing the insulting is a skelto or skeltāri and this bears striking similarities to the Dutch verb schelden and the southern German schelten, which mean shouting abuse or calling names. The West Germanic counterpart of the skald is the scop, like the scop, which is related to Modern English scoff, the name skald is continued in English scold, reflecting the central position of mocking taunts in Germanic poetry. Skaldic poetry can be traced to the earlier 9th century with Bragi Boddason and his Ragnarsdrápa, Bragi is considered the oldest and original Skald. At the time, the Icelanders and Nordic people were still pagan, as time went on, Skalds became the main source of Icelandic and Norse history and culture, as it was the Skalds who learned and shared the largely oral history. That led to a shift in the role of the Skald, every king and chieftain needed a Skald to record their feats and ensure their legacy lived on, as well as becoming the main historians of their society. The written artifacts of that come from Skalds, as they were the first from the time. As the years passed, the Skald profession was threatened with extinction until Snorri Sturluson compiled the Prose Edda, Snorri, born in Iceland during the 12th century is the most famous skald. In addition to being a poet, he was leader of the Althing for part of his life. For example, the Prose Edda broke down and explained kennings used in skaldic poetry, allowing many of them to be understood today. Beyond writing the Prose Edda, Snorri had many poems from retelling old Norse legends to tales on exploits of kings. Most Nordic verse of the Viking Age came in one of two forms, eddic or skaldic, Eddic verse was usually simple, in terms of content, style and metre, dealing largely with mythological or heroic content. Skaldic verse, conversely, was complex, and usually composed as a tribute or homage to a particular jarl or king, there is debate over the performance of skaldic poetry, but there is a general scholalry consensus that it was spoken rather than sung

31.
Bragi
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Bragi is the skaldic god of poetry in Norse mythology. Bragi is generally associated with bragr, the Norse word for poetry, the name of the god may have been derived from bragr, or the term bragr may have been formed to describe what Bragi does. A connection between the name Bragi and Old English brego chieftain has been suggested but is now discounted. A connection between Bragi and the bragarfull promise cup is sometimes suggested, as bragafull, a form of the word. Snorri Sturluson writes in the Gylfaginning after describing Odin, Thor, and Baldr, One is called Bragi, he is renowned for wisdom, and most of all for fluency of speech and skill with words. He knows most of skaldship, and after him skaldship is called bragr, and from his name that one is called bragr-man or -woman, in Skáldskaparmál Snorri writes, How should one periphrase Bragi. By calling him husband of Iðunn, first maker of poetry, and the long-bearded god and that Bragi is Odins son is clearly mentioned only here and in some versions of a list of the sons of Odin. But wish-son in stanza 16 of the Lokasenna could mean Odins son and is translated by Hollander as Odins kin, Bragis mother is possibly the giantess Gunnlod. In that poem Bragi at first forbids Loki to enter the hall but is overruled by Odin, Loki then gives a greeting to all gods and goddesses who are in the hall save to Bragi. Bragi responds that if they were outside the hall, he would have Lokis head, when Bragis wife Iðunn attempts to calm Bragi, Loki accuses her of embracing her brothers slayer, a reference to matters that have not survived. It may be that Bragi had slain Iðunns brother, the meaning of this is obscure. The first part of Snorri Sturlusons Skáldskaparmál is a dialogue between Ægir and Bragi about the nature of poetry, particularly skaldic poetry, Bragi tells the origin of the mead of poetry from the blood of Kvasir and how Odin obtained this mead. He then goes on to discuss various poetic metaphors known as kennings, Snorri Sturluson clearly distinguishes the god Bragi from the mortal skald Bragi Boddason, whom he often mentions separately. Compare the appearance of the Welsh Taliesin in the branch of the Mabinogi. Legendary chronology sometimes does become muddled, whether Bragi the god originally arose as a deified version of Bragi Boddason was much debated in the 19th century, especially by the scholars Eugen Mogk and Sophus Bugge. In the poem Eiríksmál Odin, in Valhalla, hears the coming of the dead Norwegian king Eric Bloodaxe and his host, Bragi is then mentioned, questioning how Odin knows that it is Eric and why Odin has let such a king die. In the poem Hákonarmál, Hákon the Good is taken to Valhalla by the valkyrie Göndul and Odin sends Hermóðr, in these poems Bragi could be either a god or a dead hero in Valhalla. Attempting to decide is further confused because Hermóðr also seems to be sometimes the name of a god and that Bragi was also the first to speak to Loki in the Lokasenna as Loki attempted to enter the hall might be a parallel

32.
Baldr
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Baldr is a god in Norse mythology, who is given a central role in the mythology. His precise function is, however, disputed and he is often interpreted as the god of love, peace, forgiveness, justice, light or purity, but he was not directly attested as a god of such. He is the son of Odin and the goddess Frigg. His twin brother is the blind god Höðr, jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology identifies Old Norse Baldr with the Old High German Baldere, Palter, Paltar and with Old English bealdor, baldor lord, prince, king. Old Norse shows this usage of the word as an honorific in a few cases, as in baldur î brynju and herbaldr, both epithets of heroes in general. Grimm traces the etymology of the name to *balþaz, whence Gothic balþs, Old English bald, Old High German pald, all meaning white, but the interpretation of Baldr as the brave god may be secondary. Baltic has a word meaning the white, the good, in continental Saxon and Anglo-Saxon tradition, the son of Woden is called not Bealdor but Baldag and Bældæg, Beldeg, which shows association with day, possibly with Day personified as a deity. This, as Grimm points out, would agree with the shining one, white one. Grimms etymology is endorsed by modern research, according to Rudolf Simek, the original name for Baldr must be understood as shining day. One of the two Merseburg Incantations names Baldere, but also mentions a figure named Phol, considered to be a byname for Baldr and this interpretation is linked to the presupposition that the figure in question is a companion of Wodan, the upper god. In a different interpretation, phol is just another form of folon mentioned in the next line, in the Poetic Edda the tale of Baldrs death is referred to rather than recounted at length. Among the visions which the Völva sees and describes in the known as the Völuspá is one of the fatal mistletoe, the birth of Váli. Yet looking far into the future the Völva sees a vision of a new world. The Eddic poem Baldrs Dreams mentions that Baldr has bad dreams which the gods then discuss, Odin rides to Hel and awakens a seeress, who tells him Höðr will kill Baldr but Vali will avenge him. In Gylfaginning, Baldur is described as follows, Apart from this description Baldr is known primarily for the story of his death and his death is seen as the first in the chain of events which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarök. Baldr will be reborn in the new world, according to Völuspá and he had a dream of his own death and his mother had the same dreams. Since dreams were usually prophetic, this depressed him, so his mother Frigg made every object in every realm vow never to hurt Baldr, all objects made this vow except mistletoe. When Loki, the mischief-maker, heard of this, he made a spear from this plant

33.
Kings' sagas
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Kings sagas are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were composed during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries in Iceland, included works in Latin, in approximate order of composition A Latin work by Sæmundr fróði, c. The older version of Íslendingabók by Ari fróði, c, historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium by Theodoricus monachus, c. Oldest Saga of St. Olaf, c, a Latin Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar by Oddr Snorrason, c. A Latin Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar by Gunnlaugr Leifsson, c, sverris saga, by Karl Jónsson, c. Legendary Saga of St. Olaf, c, morkinskinna, c.1220 but before Fagrskinna. Óláfs saga helga by Styrmir Kárason, c, separate Saga of St. Olaf, by Snorri Sturluson, c. Knýtlinga saga, probably by Ólafr Þórðarson, c, hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, by Sturla Þórðarson, c. Magnúss saga lagabœtis, by Sturla Þórðarson, c, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, ca 1300

34.
Ynglinga saga
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Ynglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his Heimskringla and it was first translated into English and published in 1844 by Samuel Laing. Snorri Sturluson based his work on an earlier Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, and it tells the most ancient part of the story of the House of Ynglings. Snorri described the descent of the kings of Norway from this house of Sweden. Ynglinga saga is the first part of Snorris history of the ancient Norse kings, Snorris work covers the history of the Norwegian kings from the mythical prehistoric age until the year 1177, with the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla. Interwoven in this narrative are a number of references to important historical events, the saga deals with the arrival of the Norse gods to Scandinavia and how Freyr founded the Swedish Yngling dynasty at Uppsala. Then the saga follows the line of Swedish kings until Ingjald, after which the descendants settled in Norway, the river divides Sweden the Great, a concession to the Viking point of view. It is never called that prior to the Vikings, the river lands are occupied by the Vanir and are called Vanaland or Vanaheim. It is unclear what people Snorri thinks the Vanes are, whether the proto-Slavic Venedi or the east Germanic Vandals and he does not say, however, the Germanic names of the characters, such as Njord, Frey and Vanlandi, indicate he had the Vandals in mind. Odin is the chief of Ásgarðr, from there he conducts and dispatches military expeditions to all parts of the world. He has the virtue of never losing a battle, when he is away, his two brothers, Vili and Vé, rule Ásaland from Ásgarðr. On the border of Sweden is a range running from northeast to southwest. South of it are the lands of the Turks, where Odin had possessions, thus, on the north are the uninhabitable fells, which must be the tundra/taiga country. Apparently the Vikings did not encounter the Urals or the Uralics of the region, Snorri evidences no knowledge of them. There also is no mention of Troy, which was not far from Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine empire and militarily beyond the reach of the Vikings. Troy cannot have been Asagarth, Snorri realizes, the reason being that the Æsir in Ásaland were unsettled by the activities of the Romans. As a result, Odin led a section of the Æsir to the looking for new lands in which to settle. They used the Viking route up the Don and the Volga through Garðaríki, from there they went to Saxland and to the lands of Gylfi in Scandinavia

35.
Kvasir
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In Norse mythology, Kvasir was a being born of the saliva of the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods. Extremely wise, Kvasir traveled far and wide, teaching and spreading knowledge and this continued until the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar killed Kvasir and drained him of his blood. Kvasir is attested in the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, both written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, and in the poetry of skalds, in the Prose Edda, Kvasir appears in the books Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. In the chapter, High says that while Loki was hiding from the gods, he took the form of a salmon during the day. Loki noticed that the gods were not far away from him, Loki sat before a fire, and when he noticed the gods were coming near him, he threw the net into the fire and jumped up and slipped into the river. The gods reached Loki’s house, and the first to enter was Kvasir, Kvasir saw the shape of the net in the ash of the fire, and so realized its purpose, to catch fish. And so Kvasir told the gods about it, the gods used the shape found in the ash as their model, and with it flushed Loki out of the river, resulting in his binding. In Skáldskaparmál, Kvasir is mentioned several times, in chapter 57 of the book, Ægir asks the skaldic god Bragi where the craft of poetry originates. Bragi says that the Æsir once wrangled with the Vanir but eventually came together to make peace, the two groups decided to form a truce by way of both sides spitting into a vat. After they left, the gods kept the vat as a symbol of their truce, “and decided not to let it be wasted, the man was named Kvasir, and he was extremely wise, he knew the answer to any question posed to him. Kvasir traveled far and wide throughout the world teaching mankind and spreading his vast knowledge, in time, two dwarfs, Fjalar and Galar, invited Kvasir to their home for a private talk. Upon Kvasir’s arrival, the two dwarfs killed him, and drained his blood into three objects, two of the objects were vats, called Són and Boðn, and the third was a pot called Óðrerir. Fjalar and Galar mixed the blood with honey and the mixture became mead, the two dwarfs explained to the Æsir that Kvasir died by way of “suffocat in intelligence”, as there were none among them who were so well educated as to be able to pose him questions. Bragi then tells how the Mead of Poetry, by way of the god Odin, in chapter 3 Skáldskaparmál, poetic ways of referring to poetry are provided, including Kvasir’s blood. In reference, part of Vellekla by the 10th century Icelandic skald Einarr skálaglamm is provided, further, in chapter 3, a prose narrative mentions that the Kvasir’s blood was made into the Mead of Poetry. Kvasir is mentioned in an account of the origin of the gods in chapter 4 of Ynglinga saga. The chapter narrative explains that Odin waged war on the Vanir, yet the Vanir could not be defeated, Kvasir, here a member of the Vanir and described as the cleverest among them, is included among the hostages. The etymology of the name is uncertain, the root kvas- in Kvas-ir likely stems from the Proto-Germanic base *kvass-, meaning to “to squeeze, squash, crush, bruise”

36.
Gothi
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For the town in Nepal see Gothi, Nepal A goði or gothi is the Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain. During the Viking Age, the goði was originally a heathen priest, the area over which a goði had leadership was termed a goðorð. Over time, and especially after 1000, when the Christian conversion occurred in Iceland, the name appears in Wulfilas Gothic language translation of the Bible as gudja for priest, but in Old Norse it is only the feminine form gyðja that perfectly corresponds to the Gothic form. The corresponding masculine Old Norse form would have been an unattested **gyði, there are also a few placenames, such as Gudby in Södermanland, Sweden, that probably retain the name. Otherwise, there are no further surviving attestations except from Iceland where the goðar would be of historical significance, the term goði is often used as a priestly title by modern adherents of various denominations of Germanic Neopaganism. Althing Allsherjargoði Blót Żerca Aðalsteinsson, Jón Hnefill, Blót and Þing, The Function of the Tenth-Century Goði, in A Piece of Horse Liver, Myth, Ritual and Folklore in Old Icelandic Sources, 35–56. Entry in Medieval Scandinavia, an Encyclopedia, 230–231, garland, NY and London, ISBN 0-8240-4787-7

37.
Germanic paganism
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Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period. Germanic paganism took various forms in different areas of the Germanic world, the best documented version was that of 10th and 11th century Norse religion, although other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic sources. Scattered references are found in the earliest writings of other Germanic peoples. The information can be supplemented with archaeological finds and remnants of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore, Germanic paganism was polytheistic, with similarities to other Indo-European religions. The Common Germanic period begins with the European Iron Age, contemporary to the Celtic La Tene culture to the south, early Germanic history remains in the prehistoric period until the earliest descriptions in Roman ethnography in the 1st century BC. The earliest forms of the Germanic religion can only be speculated on based on archaeological evidence, the first written description is in Julius Caesars Commentarii de Bello Gallico. He contrasts the religious custom of the Gauls with the simpler Germanic traditions. A much more detailed description of Germanic religion is Tacituss Germania, Tacitus describes both animal and human sacrifice. He identifies the chief Germanic god with the Roman Mercury, who on certain days receives human sacrifices, while gods identified by Tacitus with Hercules and Mars receive animal sacrifice. The largest Germanic tribe, Suebians, also sacrifices, allegedly of captured Roman soldiers. Nerthus is revered by Reudignians, Aviones, Angles, Varinians, Nerthus is believed to directly interpose in human affairs. Her sanctuary is on an island, specifically in a wood called Castum, a chariot covered with a curtain is dedicated to the goddess, and only the high priest may touch it. The priest is capable of seeing the goddess enter the chariot, drawn by cows, the chariot travels through the countryside, and wherever the goddess visits, a great feast is held. During the travel of the goddess, the Germanic tribes cease all hostilities, when the priest declares that the goddess is tired of conversation with mortals, the chariot returns and is washed, together with the curtains, in a secret lake. The slaves who administer this purification are afterwards thrown into the lake, according to Tacitus, the Germanic tribes think of temples as unsuitable habitations for gods, and they do not represent them as idols in human shape. Instead of temples, they consecrate woods or groves to individual gods, divination and augury was very popular, To the use of lots and auguries, they are addicted beyond all other nations. Their method of divining by lots is exceedingly simple, from a tree which bears fruit they cut a twig, and divide it into two small pieces. These they distinguish by so many several marks, and throw them at random and without order upon a white garment

38.
Yule
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Yule or Yuletide is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and it later underwent Christianised reformulation resulting in the term Christmastide. Terms with an equivalent to Yule are used in the Nordic countries for Christmas with its religious rites. Today Yule is also used to an extent in the English-speaking world as a synonym for Christmas. Present day Christmas customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, today the event is celebrated in Heathenry and some other forms of Modern Paganism. Both words are thought to be derived from Common Germanic *jeχʷla-, and are cognate with Gothic jiuleis, Old Norse, Icelandic, and Faroese jól, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian jul, jol and ýlir. The etymological pedigree of the word, however, remains uncertain, though numerous attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group. The noun Yuletide is first attested from around 1475, the word is attested in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse. Among many others, the long-bearded god Odin bears the names jólfaðr, in plural may refer to the Norse gods in general. In Old Norse poetry, the word is employed as a synonym for feast. Jolly may share the etymology, but was borrowed from Old French jolif. The word was first mentioned by the Anglo-Norman chronicler Geoffrey Gaimar in his Estoire des Engleis, or History of the English People, Yule was an indigenous midwinter festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples. While the Old Norse month name ýlir is similarly attested, the Old Norse corpus also contains references to an event by the Old Norse form of the name. In chapter 55 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, different names for the gods are given, one of the names provided is Yule-beings. A work by the skald Eyvindr Skáldaspillir that uses the term is then quoted, in addition, one of the numerous names of Odin is Jólnir, referring to the event. The Saga of Hákon the Good credits King Haakon I of Norway with the Christianisation of Norway as well as rescheduling the date of Yule to coincide with Christian celebrations held at the time, Yule had previously been celebrated for three nights from midwinter night, according to the saga. Haakon planned that when he had established himself and held power over the whole country. According to the saga, the result was that his popularity caused many to allow themselves to be baptised, Haakon spent most of this time in Trondheim

39.
Toast (honor)
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A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, thus, a person could be the toast of the evening, for whom someone proposes a toast to congratulate and for whom a third person toasts in agreement. The ritual forms the basis of the literary and performance genre, according to various apocryphal stories, the custom of touching glasses evolved from concerns about poisoning. By one account, clinking glasses together would cause each drink to spill over into the others, according to other stories, the word toast became associated with the custom in the 17th century, based on a custom of flavoring drinks with spiced toast. The word originally referred to the lady in whose honor the drink was proposed, toasts are generally offered at times of celebration or commemoration, including certain holidays, such as New Years Eve. Other occasions include retirement celebrations, housewarming parties, births, etc, the protocol for toasting at weddings is comparatively elaborate and fixed. The best man usually proposes a toast in the form of best wishes, a best mans toast takes the form of a short speech that combines a mixture of humor and sincerity. The actual toast is then delivered at the end of the speech and is a short phrase wishing the newlyweds a happy, healthy, the maid of honor may follow suit, appropriately tailoring her comments to the bride. The groom may offer the final toast, thanking the brides parents for hosting the wedding, the party for their participation. Typical traditional wedding toasts include the following, Heres to your coffins May they be made of hundred-year-old oaks Which we shall plant tomorrow. May you both live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live May the best of your yesterdays be the worst of your tomorrows, may I see you grey And combing your grandchildrens hair. Toasts are also offered on occasions, as in the case of Stephen Decaturs famous Our country. In our intercourse with foreign nations may we always be in the right, equally traditional are satiric verses, Heres to dear old Boston, The home of the bean and the cod, Where Lowells speak only to Cabots, And Cabots speak only to God. Toasts may be solemn, sentimental, humorous, even bawdy or insulting, the practice of announcing ones intention to make a toast and signalling for quiet by rapping on the wineglass, while common, is nonetheless regarded by some authorities as rude. Except in very small and informal gatherings, a toast is offered standing, at a gathering, none should offer a toast to the guest of honor until the host has had the opportunity to do so. In English-speaking countries, guests may signal their approval of the toast by saying hear hear, the person honored should neither stand nor drink, but after the toast should rise to thank the one who has offered the toast, perhaps but not necessarily offering a toast in turn. As toasts may occur in series, experienced attendees often make sure to leave enough wine in the glass to allow participation in numerous toasts. Even the non-drinker is counseled not to refuse to allow wine to be poured for a toast, inverting the glass is especially discouraged

40.
Einarr Helgason
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Einarr Helgason or Einarr skálaglamm was a 10th-century Icelandic skald. He was a poet of Lord Hákon to whom he dedicated his magnum opus. Einarrs added name skálaglamm means Bowl tinkle and refers to a set of balances and weights with divinatory powers, the part of Einarrs poetry that has come down to us is preserved in the Kings sagas, the Prose Edda, Egils saga and Jómsvíkinga saga. According to Egils saga, Einarr was a friend of Egill Skalla-Grímsson, Egill was greatly displeased since tradition compelled him to compose a drápa on the shield. According to Landnámabók and other sources, Einarr drowned in Breiðafjörður

W. G. Collingwood
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William Gershom Collingwood was an English author, artist, antiquary and professor of Fine Arts at University College, Reading. His father, also William, was a watercolour artist, and had married Marie Eliabeth Imhoff of Arbon, soon young William was sketching with his father in the Lakes, North Wales, and Switzerland. In 1872, he went to Universit

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Self portrait as Sea Captain

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The law speaker of the Althing; the Icelandic parliament, by Collingwood

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Hawkshead War Memorial

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St Bees war memorial

Norse mythology
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The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central cosmological tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings, various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla.

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An undead völva, a Scandinavian seeress, tells the spear-wielding god Odin of what has been and what will be in Odin and the Völva by Lorenz Frølich (1895)

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The Rök Runestone (Ög 136), located in Rök, Sweden features a Younger Futhark runic inscription that makes various references to Norse mythology

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The god Thor wades through a river while the Æsir ride across the bridge Bifröst in an illustration by Lorenz Frølich (1895)

Vanir
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In Norse mythology, the Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, nature, magic, and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr, after the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir. Subsequently, members of the Vanir are sometimes referred to

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A wild boar in Northern Europe. In the Prose Edda, "Van-child" is listed as a name for boars. Both Freyja and Freyr are attested as accompanied by boars.

Freyr
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Freyr or Frey is one of the most important gods of Norse religion. The name is conjectured to derive from the Proto-Norse *frawjaz, lord, Freyr was associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, and was pictured as a phallic fertility god, Freyr is said to bestow peace and pleasure on mortals. Freyr, somet

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"Freyr" (1901) by Johannes Gehrts.

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Seated on Odin's throne Hliðskjálf, the god Freyr sits in contemplation in an illustration (1908) by Frederic Lawrence

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The final battle between Freyr and Surtr, illustration by Lorenz Frølich

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A detail from Gotland runestone G 181, in the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. The three men are interpreted as Odin, Thor, and Freyr.

Freyja
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In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. Along with her brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother, stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freyia, and Freja. Freyja rules over her heavenly afterlife field Fólkvangr and there receives hal

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Nuzzled by her boar Hildisvíni, Freyja gestures to a jötunn in an illustration (1895) by Lorenz Frølich

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Freya (1882) by Carl Emil Doepler

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Freyja and Loki flyte in an illustration (1895) by Lorenz Frølich

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While Freyja's cats look on, the god Thor is unhappily dressed as Freyja in Ah, what a lovely maid it is! (1902) by Elmer Boyd Smith

Poetic Edda
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Poetic Edda is the modern attribution for an unnamed collection of Old Norse anonymous poems, which is different from the Edda, written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all consisting primarily of text from the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript known as the Codex Regius, poets who have acknowledged their debt to the Codex Regius include Vi

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The title page of Olive Bray's English translation of the Poetic Edda depicting the tree Yggdrasil and a number of its inhabitants (1908) by W. G. Collingwood.

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The cover of Lee M. Hollander's English translation of the Poetic Edda.

Prose Edda
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The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorris Edda or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse work of literature written in Iceland in the early 13th century. The work is assumed to have been written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar. It begins with a euhemerized Prologue, a section on the Norse cosmogony, pantheon an

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Thjazi and Loki. Beginning of the myth of the abduction of Idun, reported by Skáldskaparmál. Manuscript NKS 1867 4to (Iceland, 1760), Copenhagen, Royal Library

Snorri Sturluson
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Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing and he was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic a

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“Snorri Sturluson” by Christian Krohg (1890s)

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Print edition of Snorri's Edda of 1666

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Skeggi Valley in Hvammur

Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square ki

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A Vendel-era helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.

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Flag

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A romantic nationalist interpretation of Valdemar IV taking control over Gotland. The final battle outside the walls of Visby in 1361 ended with a massacre of 1,800 defenders of the city.

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Stockholm in mid-17th century

Heimskringla
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Heimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet, the name Heimskringla was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts. Snorri had himself visited Norway and Sweden, for events of the mid-12th century, Snorri explicitly names the now lost

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The single surviving page known as the Kringla leaf (Kringlublaðið) is kept in the National and University Library of Iceland.

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Gerhard Munthe, Kringla Heimsins, illustration for Ynglinga Saga.

Scandinavia
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Scandinavia /ˌskændᵻˈneɪviə/ is a historical and cultural region in Northern Europe characterized by a common ethnocultural North Germanic heritage and mutually intelligible North Germanic languages. The term Scandinavia always includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are usua

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Scandinavia

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Late Baltic Ice Lake around 10,300 years B.P., with a channel near Mount Billingen through what is now central Sweden (political boundaries added)

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Kautokeino, the main Sami city in Norway

Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney u

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The helmet found at Gjermundbu near Haugsbygd, Buskerud, is the only Viking Age helmet that has been found.

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Flag

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The Gokstad ship at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway

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The Battle of the Sound between an allied Dano-Norwegian– Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy, 8 November 1658 (29 October O.S.)

Nerthus
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In Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with fertility. Nerthus is attested by Tacitus, the first century AD Roman historian, the priests feel her presence by the cart, and, with deep reverence, attend her cart, which is drawn by heifers. Everywhere the goddess then deigns to visit, she is met with celebration, hospitality, all iron o

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Nerthus (1905) by Emil Doepler.

Hadingus
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Hadingus was one of the earliest legendary Danish kings according to Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum, where he has a detailed biography. Georges Dumézil and others have argued that Hadingus was partially modelled on the god Njörðr, Hadingus is the legendary the son of Gram of Denmark and Signe, the daughter of Finnish King Sumble. Gram steals Signe

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Hadingus and Harthgrepa, illustration by Louis Moe

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The death of Hadingus, illustration by Louis Moe

Norse paganism
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Norse religion refers to the religious traditions of the Norsemen prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, specifically during the Viking Age. Norse religion is a folk religion and it was the northern variation of the religion practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe prior to Roman and

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An 18th century copy of the Prose Edda, one of the key literary sources for Norse mythology.

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Mjölnir pendants were worn by Norse pagans during the 9th to 10th centuries. This drawing of a 4.6 cm gold-plated silver Mjolnir pendant was found at Bredsätra in Öland, Sweden.

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Gamla Uppsala, the centre of worship in Sweden until the temple was destroyed in the late 11th century.

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"Freyr" (1901) by Johannes Gehrts, The god associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, and was pictured as a phallic fertility god.

Proto-Germanic
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Proto-Germanic is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the Migration Period in the fourth century, the Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any coherent surviving texts, it has been reconstructed using the compara

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Map of the Pre-Roman Iron Age culture(s) associated with Proto-Germanic, c. 500 BC. The red area shows the areal of the preceding Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia; the magenta-colored area towards the south represents the Jastorf culture of the North German Plain.

Helsingborg
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Helsingborg is a town and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania, Sweden. It had 132,989 inhabitants in 2013, Helsingborg is the centre of the northern part of western Scania. This makes Helsingborg the fourth largest population area in Sweden, the city is also Swedens closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city Helsingør clearly visible o

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Helsingborg

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The northern harbour for yachts in Helsingborg

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The Helsingborg city hall

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Steps leading to Kärnan, central Helsingborg, close by the water front.

Sponge
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Sponges are the basalmost clade of animals of the phylum Porifera. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems, instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bo

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Sponge biodiversity and morphotypes at the lip of a wall site in 60 feet of water. Included are the yellow tube sponge, Aplysina fistularis, the purple vase sponge, Niphates digitalis, the red encrusting sponge, Spiratrella coccinea, and the gray rope sponge, Callyspongia sp.

Classical mythology
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Classical mythology or Greco-Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and political thought, mythology represents one of the major survivals of classical antiquity throughout later Western culture, the Greek word mythos

Saturn (mythology)
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Saturn is a god in ancient Roman religion, and a character in myth. Saturn is a complex figure because of his associations and long history. In later developments he came to be also a god of time and his reign was depicted as a Golden Age of plenty and peace. The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum housed the state treasury, in December, he was cel

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16th-century engraving of Saturnus

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Ruins of the Temple of Saturn (eight columns to the far right) in February 2010, with three columns from the Temple of Vespasian and Titus (left) and the Arch of Septimius Severus (center)

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Relief held by the Louvre thought to depict the veiled throne of Saturn, either a Roman work of the 1st century AD or a Renaissance copy

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Alatri's main gate of the cyclopical walls

Gloss (annotation)
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A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the language if that is different. A collection of glosses is a glossary, a collection of medieval legal glosses, made by glossators, is called an apparatus. The compilation of glo

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A gloss is a marginal notation regarding the main text in a document. Shown is a parchment page from the Royal Library of Copenhagen.

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The Glosas Emilianenses are glosses added to this Latin codex that are now considered the first phrases written in the Castilian language.

Odin
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In Germanic mythology, Odin is a widely revered god. In the modern period, Odin continued to be acknowledged in the folklore of Germanic Europe. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, though narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland and these texts make up the bulk of modern under

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Odin the Wanderer (1896) by Georg von Rosen

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Godan and Frea look down from their window in the heavens to the Winnili women in an illustration by Emil Doepler, 1905

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Winnili women with their hair tied as beards look up at Godan and Frea in an illustration by Emil Doepler, 1905

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"Wodan Heals Balder's Horse" by Emil Doepler, 1905

Vanaheimr
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In Norse mythology, Vanaheimr is one of the Nine Worlds and home of the Vanir, a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the ability to see the future. Vanaheimr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from traditional sources. In the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Vanaheimr is described as the location where the

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An attempt to illustrate Norse cosmology by Henry Wheaton (1831)

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Astronomical bodies

Flyting
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Flyting or fliting is a contest consisting of the exchange of insults, often conducted in verse, between two parties. Flyting is a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practised mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries, the root is the Old English word flītan meaning quarrel. Examples of flyting are found throughout Norse, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, the e

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The Norse gods Freyja and Loki flyte in an illustration (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

Lokasenna
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Lokasenna is one of the poems of the Poetic Edda. The poem presents flyting between the gods and Loki, Loki, amongst other things, accuses the gods of moralistic sexual impropriety, the practice of seiðr, and bias. Not ostensibly the most serious of allegations, however these elements are ultimately to lead to the onset of Ragnarök in the Eddic poe

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A depiction of Loki quarreling with the gods (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

Loki
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In Norse mythology, Loki, Loptr, or Hveðrungr is a god or jötunn. Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi, by the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Narfi and/or Nari, by the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki is the mother—givi

Hymir
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In Norse mythology, Hymir is a giant, husband of the giantess Hroðr and according to the Eddic poem Hymiskviða the father of the god Týr. He is the owner of a cauldron in which the Æsir wanted to brew beer, Thor, accompanied by Týr. Hymiskviða recounts how Thor and Týr obtain the cauldron from Hymir and his skull is unusually hard, and Thor breaks

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Thor and Hymir fishing.

Gylfaginning
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Gylfaginning, is the first part of Snorri Sturlusons Prose Edda after Prologue. The Gylfaginning deals with the creation and destruction of the world of the Norse gods, the second part of the Prose Edda is called the Skáldskaparmál and the third Háttatal. This is why he journeys to Asgard, but on the way he is tricked by the gods and arrives in som

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Gylfi is tricked in an illustration from Icelandic Manuscript, SÁM 66

Friedrich Wilhelm Heine
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heine is a German-born painter known for his genre works and paintings depicting Norse mythology. He was born in Leipzig, Germany, and died in Milwaukee, Friedrich Wilhelm Heine spent the first forty years of his life in Germany. At the age of fourteen he was a copper and steel engravers apprentice and later attended the Leipzig a

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Balder und Nanna by F. W. Heine

Skald
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The term skald or skáld, meaning ‘poet’, is generally used for poets who composed at the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. Skaldic poetry forms one of two groupings of Old Norse poetry, the other being the anonymous Eddic poetry. The most prevalent metre of skaldic poetry is dróttkvætt, the subject

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Bersi Skáldtorfuson composing poetry while in chains after being captured by King Óláfr Haraldsson (Christian Krohg 's illustration from Heimskringla, 1899 edition)

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An early modern depiction of Thor’s fight with the World Serpent, the subject of early skaldic verses by Bragi Boddason and Ulfr Uggason.

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Features

Bragi
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Bragi is the skaldic god of poetry in Norse mythology. Bragi is generally associated with bragr, the Norse word for poetry, the name of the god may have been derived from bragr, or the term bragr may have been formed to describe what Bragi does. A connection between the name Bragi and Old English brego chieftain has been suggested but is now discou

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Bragi is shown with a harp and accompanied by his wife Iðunn in this 19th-century painting by Nils Blommér.

Baldr
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Baldr is a god in Norse mythology, who is given a central role in the mythology. His precise function is, however, disputed and he is often interpreted as the god of love, peace, forgiveness, justice, light or purity, but he was not directly attested as a god of such. He is the son of Odin and the goddess Frigg. His twin brother is the blind god Hö

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Baldr's death is portrayed in this illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript.

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"Odin's last words to Baldr" (1908) by W. G. Collingwood.

Kings' sagas
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Kings sagas are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were composed during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries in Iceland, included works in Latin, in approximate order of composition A Latin work by Sæmundr fróði, c. The older version of Íslendingabók by Ari

Ynglinga saga
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Ynglinga saga is a legendary saga, originally written in Old Norse by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson about 1225. It is the first section of his Heimskringla and it was first translated into English and published in 1844 by Samuel Laing. Snorri Sturluson based his work on an earlier Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian

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Ynglinga saga illustration by Gerhard Munthe

Kvasir
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In Norse mythology, Kvasir was a being born of the saliva of the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods. Extremely wise, Kvasir traveled far and wide, teaching and spreading knowledge and this continued until the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar killed Kvasir and drained him of his blood. Kvasir is attested in the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, both written b

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Honey combs; upon his death, Kvasir's blood was drained and mixed with honey, which became the Mead of Poetry

Gothi
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For the town in Nepal see Gothi, Nepal A goði or gothi is the Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain. During the Viking Age, the goði was originally a heathen priest, the area over which a goði had leadership was termed a goðorð. Over time, and especially after 1000, when the Christian conversion occurred in Iceland, the name appears in Wulfilas

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A depiction of a goði leading the people in sacrificing to Thor in this painting by J. L. Lund

Germanic paganism
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Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period. Germanic paganism took various forms in different areas of the Germanic world, the best documented version was that of 10th and 11th century Norse religion, although other information ca

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A Migration Period Germanic gold bracteate featuring a depiction of a bird, horse, and stylized head wearing a Suebian knot sometimes theorized to represent Germanic god Wōden and what would later become Sleipnir and Hugin or Munin in Germanic mythology, later attested in the form of Norse mythology. The runic inscription includes the religious term alu.

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Idunn and the apples of youth.

Yule
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Yule or Yuletide is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and it later underwent Christianised reformulation resulting in the term Christmastide. Terms with an equivalent to Yule are used in the Nordic countries for Christmas with its religious rites. Today Yu

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Hauling a Yule log at Christmas, 1832

Toast (honor)
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A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, thus, a person could be the toast of the evening, for whom someone proposes a toast to congratulate and for whom a third person toasts in agreement. The ritual forms the basis of the literary and performanc

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Hip, Hip, Hurrah! by Danish painter P.S. Krøyer, 1888

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Celebratory drinks for the end of World War II

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New Year's toast, Germany, 1953

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A bride offering a toast at a wedding

Einarr Helgason
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Einarr Helgason or Einarr skálaglamm was a 10th-century Icelandic skald. He was a poet of Lord Hákon to whom he dedicated his magnum opus. Einarrs added name skálaglamm means Bowl tinkle and refers to a set of balances and weights with divinatory powers, the part of Einarrs poetry that has come down to us is preserved in the Kings sagas, the Prose

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Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the Roman republic.

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This part of a 12th-century Swedish tapestry has been interpreted to show, from left to right, the one-eyed Odin, the hammer-wielding Thor and Freyr holding up wheat. Terje Leiren believes this grouping corresponds closely to the trifunctional division.

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Endpapers of the original 1906 run of the Everyman's Library. The art signed " RLK " is heavily based on that of William Morris and his Kelmscott Press, whereas the quote is derived from the medieval play Everyman